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NEURASTHENIA 

or 

Nervous Exhaustion 


Don’t Worry — Cheer Up 

Worry wears worse than work. 

Worry destroys, work produces. 

Worry wastes energy, work utilizes it. 

Worry subtracts, work multiplies. 

Worry dwarfs, depresses, confuses, kills. 

Worry stops digestion, paralyzes the 
bowels, slows the heart. 

Worry anticipates failure and creates 
disaster. 

Worry is a mind malady — a mental 
unsoundness. 

Anxiety in the face of grave danger is 
natural and unavoidable. 

Worry about petty troubles, or even big 
ones, is useless and may become calamitous. 

Worry is often a habit and may be cured 
by an effort of the will. 

Ofttimes worry is due to loss of sleep, 
tea or coffee indigestion or constipation. 

Take a neutral bath at bedtime, eat bio¬ 
logically, abjure tea and coffee, move the 
bowels three times a day and— 

CHEER UP. 





NEURASTHENIA 

OR 

Nervous Exhaustion 

WITH CHAPTERS ON 

% 

Christian Science and Hypnotism, 
Habits and the “Blues” 


J\ H. Kellogg, M. D., LL. D. 

Superintendent of the Battle Creek 
Sanitarium 


Twelfth Thousand 


Battle Creek, Michigan 
GOOD HEALTH PUBLISHING CO. 

1916 



Copyright, 1916, by 
Good Health Publishing Co. 


from 

Robert L Ow # n 
Nov. 4 , *931 









Preface to the Second Edition 


The “people are destroyed for lack of 
knowledge” today as truly as in the days of 
the old prophet, who recognized in ignorance 
the greatest enemy of all human interests. 
Ignorance of those vital facts which pertain 
to the health and efficiency of the human 
body is the most deadly of all forms of mis¬ 
information or lack of information; and for 
this fact and its unhappy consequences, seen 
in the growing multitude of invalids and 
semi-invalids which fill our hospitals and 
swell the mortality lists, the chief responsi¬ 
bility lies, very strangely, with two most en¬ 
lightened and most beneficent professions, 
teachers and physicians. 

Medieval ideas of culture have kept the 
teachers’ eyes fixed upon the minor objects of 
education, and the larger and worthier needs 
of the child and the public have been over¬ 
looked. Ancient notions of professional 
dignity and superiority have led the medical 
fraternity to hold its knowledge under the 

7 


8 


NEURASTHENIA 


cover of professional secrecy, and so the peo¬ 
ple have continued to perish for lack of 
knowledge. 

The ignorance which exists even among 
men and women of wealth and culture, in re¬ 
lation to the simplest medical facts and the 
most patent principles of hygiene, alone has 
made possible the accumulation of vast for¬ 
tunes by patent-medicine venders, and the 
enormous prosperity of mind-curists, faith- 
curists, and other pseudo-medical cults, which 
the last quarter of a century has witnessed. 

But a new day is dawning. The time has 
come when a reform is called for. Educators, 
physicians, sanitarians—thinking men of all 
classes—see the need of giving more atten¬ 
tion to those subjects which best prepare the 
student for the life he is to lead. Educational 
models and ideals are being modified, and 
great changes will doubtless be made in the 
next few decades. 

Dr. Abraham Jacobi, Ex-President of the 
American Medical Association, and one of 
the most eminent physicians of this country, 
in an address before one of the sections of 


PREFACE 


9 


the International Congress on Tuberculosis, 
took strong ground upon the question of 
popular medical education. Doctor Jacobi 
said: 

“Indeed, medicine must become a popular 
science—not the cheap medicine of the sensa¬ 
tional penny-a-liner, but the fertilizing knowl¬ 
edge of basic truths in physiology and ap¬ 
plied hygiene. In this new century, universal 
ignorance of any people or any race, even the 
white, should be esteemed an intolerable 
scandal, as it surely leads to poverty and 
anarchy. Do not tell me that it has been 
said that half-knowledge is the most detri¬ 
mental thing. It is not half-knowledge that 
engenders superstition and lynching, and sec¬ 
tarianism and faith-cures—they originate 
from the same depth of darkness—it is total 
ignorance. As long as medical science will 
not enlighten the masses with its fundamental 
principles, it has failed in its most vital vo¬ 
cation. The simplest facts of medicine should 
be taught in schools, from platforms, the 
pulpits, and last, but by no means least, in 
newspapers.’’ 


10 


NEURASTHENIA 


For more than forty years the writer has 
held the views so forcibly set forth by Doctor 
Jacobi, and has sought to contribute some¬ 
thing toward the popularization of practical 
medical knowledge; and it is with this motive 
that this little work is now presented to the 
public. 

Although less than a year has elapsed 
since the publication of the first edition, 
there is a demand for a new edition. This 
affords the author an opportunity for a care¬ 
ful revision and the addition of a chapter on 
'‘Worry—How it Kills, and How to Cure,” 
and also a chapter on “Habits — How 
Formed and Reformed.” Numerous other 
minor additions have been made which it is 
hoped may enhance the practical value of the 
work. j. H . K. 


Battle Creek, Michigan, April 20, /p/5. 


Contents 


Neurasthenia: Its Causes and Cure. ... 13 

The Brain and Nerves. 25 

Chronic Fatigue—Nervous Prostration. . 33 

Toxic Neurasthenia . 55 

Nervous Dyspepsia. 98 

Drug Neurasthenia .125 

Religious Neurasthenia.145 

Sexual Neurasthenia.148 

Christian Science .151 

Worry .183 

The Philosophy of Sleep.206 

How a Neurasthenic Should Live.232 

Simple Remedies .262 

Habits—How Formed.295 


n 
















NEURASTHENIA: 

ITS CAUSES AND CURE 


This little book is not intended to be a 
technical treatise on the subject named in the 
title. Its real purpose is not to furnish 
technical information concerning this morbid 
condition, but rather to show to the indi¬ 
vidual who knows himself to be suffering 
from neurasthenia how he may escape from 
the miseries which he daily endures. An ex¬ 
tensive experience in dealing with neuras¬ 
thenics has shown that nervous invalids of 
this class are very susceptible to suggestion. 
Neurasthenics often acquire new symptoms 
as a result of reading medical books or com¬ 
paring notes with other neurasthenics; hence 
it is thought wise to omit the long list of 
morbid sensations which are supposed to be 
characteristics of neurasthenia. 


13 


14 


NEURASTHENIA 


Neurasthenia Not a Distinct Disease 

At the outset the author desires to call the 
reader’s attention to the fact that, although 
often for convenience referred to as a dis¬ 
ease, neurasthenia is really not a distinct 
malady in the sense that typhoid fever, small¬ 
pox, pulmonary tuberculosis, and pneumonia 
are diseases, but is rather a symptom or 
group of symptoms resulting from disease. 
Or, to speak more accurately, it is a group of 
symptoms which are not connected with a 
definite morbid condition, but which may ac¬ 
company various morbid states—just as fever 
with its accompanying headache, rapid 
pulse, high temperature, hot skin and pros¬ 
tration is not a disease, but rather, an indi¬ 
cation of the presence of disease, the char¬ 
acter and seat of which may greatly vary. 

The word “neurasthenia” is quite modern. 
It was coined by Dr. George M. Beard, an 
eminent neurologist of New York City, from 
two Greek words meaning “nerve” and “lack 
of energy.” The writer happened to be 
pursuing post-graduate studies under Doctor 


CAUSES AND CURE 


15 


Beard and acting as his assistant in the de¬ 
partment of nervous disorders at Demilt Dis¬ 
pensary when the Doctor was writing his 
early treatises on neurasthenia, and had an 
opportunity to become thoroughly familiar 
with his views of treatment, one of the char¬ 
acteristic features of which was the almost ab¬ 
solute disuse of drugs, at that time a very 
heretical position. Doctor Beard regarded 
neurasthenia as a distinct disease, but the 
writer soon became skeptical upon this point, 
notwithstanding the very general accept¬ 
ance of the views of Doctor Beard in this 
country and Europe. Treatises on neuras¬ 
thenia appeared in every language. Physi¬ 
cians found the new word a convenient name 
for all sorts of morbid nervous conditions. 
The disease was as popular with the laity as 
with the profession. Patients who had long 
been treated without success for “nervous 
prostration” were quickly cured by the same 
remedies applied for the cure of neuras¬ 
thenia. The change of name gave new po¬ 
tency to old remedies. A wave of neuras¬ 
thenia, so to speak, swept over the whole 


16 


NEURASTHENIA 


civilized world and it became rather popular 
to be neurasthenic. 

At the present time there are probably very 
few eminent neurologists who regard neuras¬ 
thenia as a disease, and, indeed, the term 
neurasthenia is disappearing from standard 
medical literature. For many years the 
author has not felt himself justified in making 
a diagnosis of neurasthenia in any case that 
has been presented to him; for back of the 
multifarious symptoms may always be 
found, by careful searching, a definite 
morbid condition which is the real disease, 
and to the eradication of which the appro¬ 
priate remedies must be directed. 

The word neurasthenia is used in the title 
of this little work only because its general 
use during two score of years has given to it 
a definite meaning which cannot be so well 
conveyed to the lay mind by any other term. 
The word will probably in time disappear 
from medical literature, although the erro¬ 
neous concept through which it originated 
will, like many another medical error, long 
survive in popular usage. 


CAUSES AND CURE 


17 


Seldom Due to Overwork 

Neurasthenia is generally attributed to 
overwork. In the writer’s experience cases 
of neurasthenia due to overwork are ex¬ 
tremely rare. Indeed, the author does not 
feel certain that he has ever encountered a 
case of this sort. It is not overwork, but 
overcivilization and useless waste of energy 
in worry and in other ways that produce neu¬ 
rasthenia. Work is physiological. The 
damages which result from work, even from 
overwork, are readily repaired by rest and 
sleep, Nature’s efficient remedies for the con¬ 
sequences of overactivity. 

Every tired person is for the time being 
neurasthenic. His store of nerve energy is 
exhausted, his efficiency is impaired; but a 
period of rest, with a few hours’ sleep, com¬ 
pletely restores him to his normal state. This 
is true of a healthy man; but a neurasthenic 
is tired when he has not worked, perhaps 
even feels worse after he has slept. So it 
is plain that the neurasthenic is suffering 
from something more than overwork. His 
fatigue is not of a sort that is cured by rest 


18 


NEURASTHENIA 


or sleep. He is chronically tired. What the 
real condition is will more clearly appear 
in later chapters. 

Prevalence of Nervousness 

It is important that neurasthenia should be 
understood and dealt with, for its prevalence 
has increased in modern times so that it has 
come to be, in this country at least, almost 
a national malady. Thousands of persons 
are suffering from neurasthenia w T ho are un¬ 
aware of the fact. They know that they are 
irritable, confused, miserable and failing in 
efficiency, but do not dream they are ill, and 
least of all do they suspect that their miseries 
are due to errors in habits of life which might 

easily be corrected. 

Neurasthenia is a most demoralizing con¬ 
dition. It not only makes its victims 
wretched, but it is an affliction to their friends 
as well. The character changes more or less 
in sickness, no matter wffiat the nature of the 
malady. Old Doctor Abernethy declared: 
“Every sick man is a rascal!" But in neu¬ 
rasthenia the character changes to an extent 


CAUSES AND CURE 


19 


almost beyond belief; and these changes in 
character, if the diseased condition is long 
neglected, may become habits so firmly fixed 
as to be eradicated only with the greatest 
difficulty. Said a lady in our office some years 
ago, while weeping and sobbing most bitterly, 
after having given an account of symptoms 
that had revealed the fact that she was ex¬ 
ceedingly irritable, and that she scolded her 
husband, children, and neighbors on the 
slightest provocation: “Please, Doctor, tell 
me, am I sick, or am I wicked?’ 

There can be no question that many crimes, 
multitudes of suicides, great numbers of di¬ 
vorces and other social calamities may be 
rightfully regarded as among the natural re¬ 
sults of -neurasthenic conditions. Probably 
more than one poor fellow who was suffering 
from a fit of neurasthenia has been sent to 
the gallows by a judge. Wars have been 
declared and rivers of blood have flowed to 
satisfy the whims of neurasthenic kings and 
queens. Unquestionably our national char¬ 
acter is undergoing a change in an unfavor¬ 
able direction; if not as a result of neuras- 


20 


NEURASTHENIA 


thenia, then as a result of causes to which neu¬ 
rasthenia itself is due. Ten thousand murders 
a year, fifteen thousand suicides, sixty thous¬ 
and divorces and a steady increase of crimes 
of all sorts are clear indications of the moral 
depreciation which seems to be accelerating 
with each decade. Insanity is increasing at 
the rate of three hundred per cent in fifty 
years. Feeble-mindedness has doubled within 
a generation. According to Doctor Daven¬ 
port, of the Carnegie Institute, mental de¬ 
fectives at the present time constitute one per 
cent of the entire population. The increase 
of neurasthenia is simply one phase of the 
race degeneracy which is making rapid prog¬ 
ress in all civilized countries. 

Not Hereditary 

Neurasthenia is not hereditary, but an in¬ 
creasingly large proportion of the popula¬ 
tion is born with a predisposition to neuras¬ 
thenia and other neuroses. This predisposi¬ 
tion is, of course, not curable. It is a 
personal characteristic as definite and in¬ 
eradicable as the color of the hair or the 


CAUSES AND CURE 


21 


eyes; but if the predisposition cannot be re¬ 
moved, its outward manifestations may be in¬ 
definitely postponed or altogether prevented. 
Probably most neurasthenics are born with a 
predisposition to the disease, although it is 
also probable that any person may become a 
neurasthenic if the exciting causes of this con¬ 
dition are applied with sufficient intensity and 
for a sufficient length of time. 

The remedies suggested in this book as a 
means by which neurasthenia may be cured, if 
applied by a well person born with a predis¬ 
position to neurasthenia, may altogether pre¬ 
vent the appearance of the disease. Neuras¬ 
thenia is practically always due to unnatural 
habits of life. It may most often be traced to 
errors in diet or other departures from the 
physiologic laws which govern man’s physical 
being. 

Neurasthenia is simply a state of exhaus¬ 
tion of the vital resources, the result of neg¬ 
lecting to conform to the great biologic laws 
which have control over the functions of the 
mind and body, just as the law of gravitation 
controls the movement of the planets. While 


22 


NEURASTHENIA 


recognizing the immutability of the laws of 
the inanimate world and of the natural 
principles which govern animal and vegetable 
life, man treats himself as an exception to all 
other living things and beings, and has under¬ 
taken to assert superiority over the biologic 
laws which govern his species, and to estab¬ 
lish an order prompted by his own fickle 
fancy. The results of this ignoring of 
natural laws and principles have been ac¬ 
cumulating during many ages, and are now 
showing themselves in exaggerated form in 
a widespread degeneracy which in recent 
years has attracted the attention of intelligent 
and thoughtful people in all parts of the 
civilized world. An immense amount of im¬ 
portant data bearing on this question was 
brought out in the first Race Betterment 
Conference held at Battle Creek in January, 

1914. 

The Return-to-Nature Cure 

Neurasthenia is only one of the conse¬ 
quences of our wide digression from the path 
of physical rectitude. The cure of neuras¬ 
thenia consists in returning to Nature 


CAUSES AND CURE 


23 


and in the cultivation of the simple life. It 
is believed that an intelligent application of 
the simple but thoroughgoing measures sug¬ 
gested in this little work will be found effi¬ 
cient, not only as a means of preventing neu¬ 
rasthenia in those with a predisposition to 
this condition, but in the cure of every neuras¬ 
thenic who is not so far depreciated by his 
disease that he is no longer able to follow a 
definite or restricted course of life. It is just 
to the measures suggested to say that they 
are not experimental, but have been success¬ 
fully employed in the treatment of many 
thousands of neurasthenics. During the last 
forty years the writer has been constantly 
dealing with this class of patients, and by the 
use of the methods herein recommended has 
seen many thousands who have been for 
many years crippled, or completely disabled 
by neurasthenic conditions, restored to a fair, 
often excellent, state of health and useful¬ 
ness. The improvement has been in some 
instances so rapid as to seem almost mirac¬ 
ulous, and the transformation has been so 


24 


NEURASTHENIA 


complete and wonderful as to be a great 
surprise to the patient and his friends. 

Lastly, it should be said that it is not the 
purpose of the author in the presentation of 
this book to offer in any case a substitute 
for the wise physician, but rather to supply 
to the physician an aid and ally in dealing 
with his neurasthenic patient. What the neu¬ 
rasthenic can do for himself is of much 
greater importance than what his physician 
can do for him. It is the aim of this book 
to point out to the victim of neurasthenia 
what he can do for himself in working out 
the problem of his recovery in cooperation 
with his physician. 


The Brain and Nerves 


To be able to appreciate the value of the 
rational method of preventing and curing 
neurasthenia, it is essential to have in mind 
at the beginning, the fundamental facts of 
the anatomy and physiology of the brain 
and nerves. 

The brain is a community of thinking cells. 
The spinal cord is an extension of the brain 
into the bony canal of the spine. The 
nerves are simply extensions of the brain and 
spinal cord into the body at large. The 
spinal cord and nerves, which are extensions 
of the brain, and are technically known as 
the central nervous system, thus occupy the 
whole body, just as do the blood-vessels, 
which are simply extensions of the heart. 

Sensibility without Nerves 

The lowest animal form is a single cell. 
Such an animal, as an ameba, for example, 
possesses in a general way the characteristic 


25 


26 


NEURASTHENIA 


functions of higher animals, without the 
special organs by which these functions are 
performed in higher animals. The ameba 
has no ears, eyes, nose or other sense 
organs, yet it is keenly sensitive. It seems to 
be able to feel, taste, and smell, although it 
appears even under the most powerful micro¬ 
scope to be simply a living jelly drop without 
a bodily structure at all resembling that of 
higher animals. 

The ameba has no muscles, yet it contracts. 
It has no arms, legs, fins, or wings, yet it has 
the faculty of locomotion. It has no stomach, 
yet it digests; no liver, yet it excretes; no 
lungs, yet it breathes; no brain, yet it mani¬ 
fests marvelous intelligence or instinct. The 
one simple cell performs all the duties of 
brain, stomach, muscle, liver, lungs, and 
special senses. 

Higher animals are communities of cells 
divided into groups, each of which is charged 
with some special function, like the specialists 
who follow particular vocations in a civic 
community: cells which make a specialty of 
contracting are associated together to form 


BRAIN AND NERVES 


27 


the muscular system; cells which excrete 
form the kidneys, liver or skin; cells which 
think and feel—the brain and nerves. 

The Brain and Nerve Cells—The Neuron 

It is scarcely a. score of years since the 
structure of the brain and nerves has been 
understood. The wonderful discoveries of 
Cajal, a Spanish physiologist, unraveled 
mysteries which had baffled the wisest 
scholars and philosophers for ages. We now 
know that the brain and nerves are com¬ 
posed of cells of most extraordinary forms 
and properties, each of which is known as a 
neuron. 

The neuron is the unit of the nervous sys¬ 
tem. A neuron consists of three parts: a 
body, arms or branches known as “dend¬ 
rites,” and one very long arm called the 
“axon.” 

A nerve cell is strictly comparable to a 
small battery or a battery cell. In its body 
is generated nerve energy, much as a battery 
cell or a dynamo generates electricity. The 
axon conducts the nerve energy as a wire con- 


26 


NEURASTHENIA 


ducts electricity. The dendrites are receiv¬ 
ing organs, like the antennae of the wireless 
apparatus. The dendrites of one cell form 
contacts with one or more axons of other 
cells. A nerve cell is also comparable to a 
central telephone station; it both receives 
and sends out messages. It differs from a 
telephone station essentially in the fact that 
while it may receive messages from many 
directions through its numerous branching 
dendrites, it has but one wire on which to 
send out its messages. But this one wire may 
make contacts with many different cells. 

The neurons of the brain and cord are 
gathered in groups which are called ganglia, 
or nerve centers, each of which is charged 
with some special function. Every im¬ 
portant organ and function of the body has 
its governing nerve center. Even each in¬ 
dividual group of muscles is represented by 
a controlling “motor center” at the surface 
of the brain. Control is for the most part 
effected through the axons which pass from 
the brain to neurons in the cord, and from 


A Neuron, or Nerve Cell 



Nfrve Cel i s 





BRAIN AND NERVES 


29 


the neurons of the cord, axons are sent to the 
individual muscles and other organs. 

The various nerve centers of the brain and 
cord are connected by axons, which thus asso¬ 
ciate and unify the action of the several 
centers. The structure of the brain has been 
so carefully studied that the function of every 
part is now pretty definitely known, so that 
any diseased condition of the brain may gen¬ 
erally be discovered by means of accompany¬ 
ing disturbances in distant related parts. 

Nerve Energy 

The energy generated by nerve cells was 
once supposed to be identical with electricity, 
but it is now known that this is not true. 
Nerve energy travels much more slowly than 
does electricity. The rate at which a nerve 
impulse travels is only about one hundred feet 
a second, whereas electricity travels at the 
rate of 280,000 miles a second, or nearly a 
billion times as fast. 

Nerve energy differs from electricity in 
another important particular. Electricity 
will travel on any moist or metallic substance. 
Nerve force will travel on nothing but nerves, 


30 


NEURASTHENIA 


—axons or neurons. If a nerve is cut, the 
current of nerve energy is at once interrupted 
and is not restored, even if the ends are 
pressed together ever so closely. The nerve 
conductor is restored only by actual repair 
and restoration of the continuity of the living 
conducting path. Electricity, on the other 
hand, requires only a good contact to insure 
conduction. 

The source of nerve energy in the cell has 
been shown to be certain minute granules 
known as energy granules, which represent 
stored-up energy that has been gathered 
from the food materials circulating in the 
blood stream. 

Mental Activity 

Science has not yet fully solved the mystery 
of mind, and probably never will, but it is 
known that certain parts of the brain, partic¬ 
ularly the surface of the front and middle 
portions of the cerebrum, are specially con¬ 
cerned in conscious mental activity. Various 
other groups of cells are charged with the 
duty of storing up impressions received 
through the senses. By means of the axons 


BRAIN AND NERVES 


31 


and dendrites these various groups are con¬ 
nected. Through the relations thus formed, 
ideas are developed, and thoughts and con¬ 
cepts are formed. 

Mental energy, like nerve energy, of which 
it is only one form, depends upon the energy 
granules stored up in the cells. 

Mental capacity depends upon the number 
of brain cells and the number of groupings 
formed by connecting, or so-called “associa¬ 
tion,” fibres. 

Cell Quality 

Mental efficiency depends upon cell quality 
as well as cell numbers. Cells which are 
lacking in energy granules, or which are un¬ 
able to make use of their stores of energy, 
will function badly—just as a battery may be 
weak, either because it is nearly run down and 
needs to have its elements renewed, or be¬ 
cause it is short-circuited, so that its energy is 
being used up in consuming the battery itself 
instead of being available for useful work. 

A neurasthenic may be in a condition re¬ 
sembling a run-down battery, or his state may 
be comparable to that of a short-circuited 


32 


NEURASTHENIA 


battery in which there may be a great ex¬ 
penditure of energy without the accomplish¬ 
ment of any useful work. 

The Finest Instrument Known to Man 

The human brain is no doubt the finest in¬ 
strument which is known to man. By means 
of this marvelous structure the simple inani¬ 
mate food we swallow today may be so 
metamorphosed and transfigured as tomor¬ 
row to be thinking, talking and walking. 
This wonderful thinking mechanism, with its 
hundred billion cells and millions of group¬ 
ings, requires for its perfect working the 
finest adjustment of essential conditions. Just 
the right amount of blood from the heart, 
the proper supply of oxygen from the lungs, 
the right amount and kind of nutriment from 
the stomach and intestine, the constant re¬ 
moval of waste products by the blood and 
lymph, the necessary repair of worn parts by 
adequate rest and sleep—these are a few of 
the conditions essential for healthful, force¬ 
ful brain activity. How seldom are these 
conditions perfectly realized! 


Chronic Fatigue — Nervous 
Prostration 


As explained in the preceding chapter, a 
nerve cell generates nerve energy, just as a 
battery cell generates electricity. When ex¬ 
amined under a microscope, a healthy nerve 
cell is seen to contain a number of minute, 
glistening granules. Certain coloring mat¬ 
ters are readily taken up by these granules 
so that they may be made easily visible 
under the microscope, and thus their num¬ 
ber readily estimated. Professor Hodge, 
an eminent physiologist, has demonstrated 
by a minute study of the nerve cells of 
swallows, that there is a great loss of 
cell substance after the bird has been for 
hours active on the wing. These observa¬ 
tions, with numerous others, have definitely 
proved that the granules represent stored 
energy. That is, they consist of material 
which the cell uses in producing the energy 
which it sends out along its axon to other 
cells, or to the various organs and structures 


33 


34 


NEURASTHENIA 


of the body. Thus a cell through its activity 
consumes itself, just as a battery uses up the 
elements of which it is composed. The ex¬ 
hausted cell is diminished in size, and it has a 
much smaller number of energy granules than 
does the rested cell. 

It is evident, then, that the amount of 
energy which a cell can manifest depends 
first of all upon the amount of energy which 
it has in store. A cell which is well filled with 
energy granules is capable of a much greater 
output of energy than a cell that is half empty 
of its granules; just as a battery that has been 
freshly renewed is capable of sending out a 
larger amount of current than a battery which 
is half run down. The nerve cell which has 
used up its store of energy so that its output 
is very small, or has ceased altogether, is in a 
state of partial or complete exhaustion. 

But there must be other causes of fatigue, 
for it frequently occurs that a person who 
seems completely exhausted, will after a few 
moments’ rest seem to be quite fresh again 
and able to resume activity. The time which 
has elapsed in the interval of rest has been 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


35 


too short to permit the cell to recruit restored 
energy to any considerable degree; hence, 
there must be some other influence at work. 

What the Laboratory Shows about Fatigued 

Muscles 

Laboratory experiments have demon¬ 
strated that an exhausted muscle may be 
completely rested by simply washing it, 
showing that the exhausted muscle contains 
some element, the removal of which restores 
the ability of the muscle to work. It has been 
noted, also, that if the muscles of the legs are 
worked to the extent of exhaustion the arms 
also become tired, even though they have 
taken no part in the work. Professor Ranke 
found that an extract prepared from ex¬ 
hausted frog muscles produced fatigue when 
introduced into the circulation of fresh 
muscles. These experiments have led to the 
conclusion that poisons result from the activi¬ 
ties of the cell. These fatigue poisons lessen 
the cell’s working power. If they are re¬ 
moved by the blood and lymph as rapidly 
as formed, they do not produce the sensa- 


36 


NEURASTHENIA 


tion of fatigue. In experiments on muscles it 
is found that if an interval of ten seconds is 
permitted to elapse after each movement, the 
same movement may be repeated for a very 
long time without fatigue; whereas without 
the interval, fatigue occurs in a very short 
time. 

Various other factors contribute to the 
production of fatigue. For example, a person 
who could walk several miles without serious 
fatigue might find himself completely tired 
out by walking the steel rail of a railroad 
track for half an hour. The close attention 
and constant muscular effort required to main¬ 
tain one’s balance while walking on a narrow 
base are the cause of the greater exhaustion 
in this case. Simple mental tasks which may 
be performed with very, little effort or with¬ 
out fatigue under favorable conditions, such 
as the adding of a column of figures, often 
become very exhausting when done under un¬ 
favorable conditions, as amid distracting 
surroundings or constant interruptions. An 
attempt to work when the mind is preoccu¬ 
pied with some insistent idea which cannot be 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


37 


put aside, is most exhausting. The intruding 
ideas act like a brake upon the wheels of 
the mind, diverting the attention and com¬ 
pelling the expenditure of an undue amount 
of energy for the accomplishment of the 
work in hand. Such a person is like a short- 
circuited battery. The brain energy is con¬ 
sumed in internal w T ork, so that little is avail¬ 
able for useful activity. It is thus apparent 
that working ability depends, not only upon 
the possession by the brain cells of a sufficient 
store of energy, but upon a variety of other 
conditions which must be favorably con¬ 
trolled in order to secure the highest degree 
of efficiency. 

To give the nerve cells an opportunity to 
renew their energy granules, adequate rest 
and sleep are essential, as the cell can accumu¬ 
late energy only when the intake exceeds the 
output. In order that the working cell may 
maintain its activity it must be constantly 
bathed with blood rich in oxygen, so that the 
waste products of its activity may become 
oxidized and eliminated as they are formed, 
thus preventing the accumulation of fatigue 


38 


NEURASTHENIA 


poisons. Every one has at some time experi¬ 
enced the refreshing effect of a half hour’s 
walk in the fresh air, after several hours of 
taxing mental work. 

Depression Resulting from Excessive Heat 

A condition which closely resembles fatigue 
is the depression which results from excessive 
heat. The direct effect of heat upon living 
cells is stimulation. Heat, like cold, is an ex¬ 
citant, but the effect upon the general nervous 
system of the exposure of the body to heat in 
an overheated atmosphere, or a prolonged 
hot bath, is highly depressing. An experi¬ 
ment made by the author several years ago 
shows that this effect of heat, which closely 
resembles a condition of fatigue, may be 
quickly overcome by cold applications. 
The strength of a vigorous, healthy man was 
tested with the universal dynamometer and 
was found to be, in the aggregate, 6,000 
pounds. A hot bath was administered for 
half an hour, at the end of which time the 
subject was very weak. The strength tests 
were repeated, and although the subject ex- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


39 


erted himself to the utmost, the total was 
found to be only five thousand pounds, or 
sixteen per cent less than before the bath. 
A cold shower was then applied for three 
or four minutes, at the end of which time 
the strength was again tested and the total 
now found to be six thousand one hundred 
pounds, or more than at the beginning of 
the experiment. This experiment showed 
very well the power of cold in neutralizing 
the effects of fatigue when due to causes 
other than actual exhaustion of the stores 
of energy in the nerve centers. It also il¬ 
lustrates the depressing effects of heat, and 
explains the weakness and exhaustion from 
which many neurasthenics suffer on hot days, 
or during long spells of warm weather. The 
neurasthenic is often very susceptible to 
weather changes. 

Overwork Not a Frequent Cause 

The state of chronic fatigue may possibly 
be due to overwork, although in the writer’s 
experience this cause is much less frequently 
in evidence than is generally supposed. The 


40 


NEURASTHENIA 


neurasthenic is generally told he has over¬ 
worked. “Broken down from overwork” is 
the most frequent diagnosis in neurasthenic 
cases. 

A careful inquiry into all the conditions of 
life and all influences in operation will, in 
nearly every case, show other and far more 
potent causes for the production of a neuras¬ 
thenic state than excessive work. Insuffi¬ 
ciency of sleep, or sleep in a hot, unventilated 
room, or amid noise or other unfavorable 
conditions, may easily become a cause of 
neurasthenia. 

Insufficient Nourishment 

Insufficiency of food is another cause of 
neurasthenia occasionally encountered in this 
country, though less common than in some 
others. Like all other body structures, nerve 
cells derive their stores of energy from 
food. It is evident that deficiency of food 
must deprive the cells of their supplies of 
energy material, and so must lead to lack of 
endurance and to chronic fatigue. While this 
is true, there is no ground for the widely en- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


41 


tertained belief that flesh foods, eggs, fish, 
and other foodstuffs which are rich in animal 
protein, are especially necessary to make 
good a loss of nervous energy. The truth is 
the very opposite. 

Experiments of Von Noorden, Lusk, 
Zuntz, and others, have shown beyond any 
room for doubt that nitrogenous food¬ 
stuffs—that is, foods rich in protein or 
albumin—abnormally exhaust the energy cen¬ 
ters and so lead to a great waste of energy. 
The evidence afforded by the latest scientific 
studies of this subject goes to show that, while 
a small amount of protein is necessary for the 
building up of nerve tissues as well as other 
tissues, it is the fats and carbohydrates (that 
is, starches and sugars), with the organic 
salts found in cereals and vegetables, that are 
of first importance in replenishing nervous 
energy. The brain, like the muscles, requires 
fuel to support its activities. The fats and 
starches offer the best fuel foods, while pro¬ 
tein or nitrogenous substances are an inferior 
source of energy, whether nervous or muscu¬ 
lar; and their use in excess of the amounts 


42 


NEURASTHENIA 


needed for tissue repair, is accompanied by 
loss of energy and other still more serious in¬ 
conveniences. 

Worry a Mental Short-Circuiting 

Worry is a sort of mental short-circuit¬ 
ing which rapidly exhausts the nerve centers, 
draining them of their energy and unfitting 
the body for useful effort. Experiments with 
the plethysmograph have demonstrated that 
depressing emotions are far more powerful 
causes of wear and tear to nerve centers than 
is healthy brain work. According to Mosso’s 
observations, the effect of vigorous intellect¬ 
ual activity upon the brain is far less than 
that of a disturbing emotion. Mental work, 
combined with worry and anxiety, tears down 
the nerve centers, exhausts their stores of 
energy, and cripples their ability to recuper¬ 
ate; but it is not the work itself which does 
the mischief; it is the cross-fire, the short- 
circuit, the confusing and harassing influence 
of disturbing emotions, which exhaust the 
nerve forces and prevent the brain from re¬ 
pairing its losses. 

Mental diversion and a favorable psycho- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


43 


logical environment are unquestionably of im¬ 
portance in the treatment of neurasthenics. 
But this is not all, however; back of the 
psychic disturbances generally lie real phys¬ 
ical disorders which a patient is more or less 
powerless to resist. This is illustrated by a 
story told of the famous Doctor Abernethy, 
a leading London physician in the early part 
of the last century. Being consulted one day 
by a most woe-be-gone and melancholy pa¬ 
tient, he said: “You need diversion, sir. Go 
to hear Grimaldi”—a famous French hu¬ 
morist who was at the time convulsing great 
London audiences with his wit. “Alas,” said 
the patient, “I am Grimaldi.” 

Exhaustion from Insomnia 

A person who is the victim of chronic fa¬ 
tigue often suffers from insomnia. He never 
sleeps soundly, is awakened by slight noises, 
and when he does sleep he is agitated 
by frightful or depressing dreams from which 
he often awakens in a state of profound 
agitation, and with a sense of great ex¬ 
haustion. Such persons often rise in the 


44 


NEURASTHENIA 


morning feeling less refreshed than when 
they retired the night before. In fact, morn¬ 
ing depression and wretchedness are common 
symptoms in neurasthenics. 

Mental confusion, loss of memory, in¬ 
ability to concentrate the mind, indecision and 
other neurasthenic symptoms often disappear 
as evening approaches, only to reappear 
again on the following morning. Neuras¬ 
thenics of this class are almost invariably 
found to be suffering from insufficient elim¬ 
ination. A coated tongue and a bad breath 
indicate a state of chronic toxemia. During 
sleep the action of the heart, lungs, kidneys, 
and other eliminating organs, is diminished 
to a marked degree; in consequence there is 
during the night an accumulation of waste 
and toxic substances which befog the brain, 
cripple the nerve cells, and give rise to the 
aggravation of miseries which these patients 
experience. 

Not a few neurasthenics, on the other 
hand, find themselves feeling quite well in 
the morning and are able to endure an hour 
or two of active work; then comes an over- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


45 


powering sense of fatigue that unfits them 
for any further work during the day. 

The Influence of Occupation 

With some the inability to work manifests 
itself only in relation to certain occupations, 
usually those to which the subject has long 
been accustomed, and which seem to have in¬ 
duced over-exhaustion of certain portions or 
faculties of the brain. In such cases, change 
of occupation will sometimes apparently ef¬ 
fect a complete cure, although the effects may 
be only temporary. 

Certain neurasthenics are exhausted by use 
of the eyes in reading or other fine work. 
Others are chiefly fatigued by the use of the 
arms, while others find it impossible to walk 
more than a short distance without a sense 
of complete exhaustion. These different 
forms of neurasthenia do not differ essen¬ 
tially in character, but rather in the special 
way in which the morbid condition present is 
manifested. 

The writer considers it important that the 
popular idea that neurasthenia is due to over- 


46 


NEURASTHENIA 


work should be vigorously combated. Un¬ 
fortunately, this idea has been generally en¬ 
tertained by the medical profession as well as 
by the laity. 

Excessive and prolonged activity of the 
brain may be followed by neurasthenia; but 
the result cannot be fairly attributed to work. 
This view has been firmly held by the writer 
for very many years, and in support thereof 
we are able to quote Doctors Proust and Bal¬ 
let, two eminent French physicians, who, in 
their recent excellent work on neurasthenia, 
state that “intellectual work is one of the 
least formidable causes of neurasthenia 
adding, “The man who, without anxiety, 
without other care than that of research, 
gives himself up even passionately to specu¬ 
lative studies, is but slightly exposed to fall 
into neurasthenia. If he bring too lively an 
ardor to his work, or if he prolong his exer¬ 
tions beyond measure, the result will be a 
state of fatigue more or less profound, ac¬ 
cording to the degree of resistance of his 
brain, and nothing more. Fatigue, and the 
embarrassment of cerebral activity that fol- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


47 


lows it, will of themselves put an end to this 
over-pressure, or will at least restrain it 
within just bounds; the nervous exhaustion 
that may result from it will in such a case be 
speedily reparable. We venture to affirm, 
then, that apart from very rare exceptions, 
intellectual overwork properly so-called is in¬ 
capable of engendering a persistent neuras¬ 
thenia; provided always that hereditary de¬ 
fects or depressing emotions do not come, as 
most often happens, to add their pernicious 
influence to the excess of intellectual work.” 

Neurasthenia a Disease of Sedentary Life 

The fact that neurasthenia is especially a 
disease of sedentary life is very well shown 
in the following statistical table prepared by 
Doctors Proust and Ballet: 

Among 604 neurasthenics were found: 

Merchants and manufacturers .... 198 


Clerks .130 

Professors and teachers . 68 

Students . 56 

Officers . 38 

Artists . 33 







48 


NEURASTHENIA 


Without profession . 19 

Medical men. 17 

Agriculturists . 17 

Clergy . 10 

Men of science and learning. 6 

Schoolboys . 6 

Working men . 6 


That muscular work, even excessive, is 
not a common cause of chronic neurasthenia 
is clearly shown by clinical experience. The 
above table shows only one neurasthenic 
from the working class, to more than a hun¬ 
dred from men leading sedentary lives. 

Neurasthenics appear to be by far more 
numerous among the educated and so-called 
refined classes. Teachers, clergymen, law¬ 
yers, physicians, and other professional men, 
are much more subject to neurasthenia than 
are farmers and others whose vocations re¬ 
quire a considerable degree of muscular ex¬ 
ertion. 

While women perhaps suffer more fre¬ 
quently from splanchnic neurasthenia than do 
men, on account of their improper mode of 
dress and neglect of muscular development, 









CHRONIC FATIGUE 


49 


men, on the whole, are more subject to neu¬ 
rasthenia than women. 

Von Hossling noted that of 828 neuras¬ 
thenic patients 604 were men, and 224, or-a 
little more than one-fourth, were women. 
The causes which give rise to neurasthenia in 
men more frequently produce hysteria in 
women. 


Neurasthenic Boys and Girls 

Neurasthenia often begins in childhood. 
Multitudes of children are made neuras¬ 
thenic by wrong methods in education, espe¬ 
cially by the neglect of physical development, 
and by improper discipline in the school or in 
the home. Doubtless most of these young 
neurasthenics are predisposed to neuroses by 
heredity. The proportion of such children 
to the total school population is unquestion¬ 
ably increasing. It is consequently of the 
highest importance that preventive measures 
should be applied at an early period, and 
especially that influences calculated to de¬ 
velop the neurasthenic tendency should be 
suppressed. 


50 


NEURASTHENIA 


Children predisposed to neurasthenia 
should be brought up from the very start in 
strict harmony with simple life principles. 
Diet, clothing, sleep, and exercise, should all 
be regulated with the most careful regard for 
the physical needs of the child. Meats, condi¬ 
ments, tea, coffee, pastry and confectionery, 
for which things neurasthenic children are 
especially likely to acquire a fondness, should 
be strictly withheld. The child should spend 
every possible moment of his life in the open 
air, and should sleep in a fresh-air sleeping 
room at all seasons of the year. Neuras¬ 
thenic children need the benefit of the open- 
air school as much as do tubercular children, 
and they profit as greatly by it. 

Neurasthenic children have a special tend¬ 
ency to the formation of perverse sexual 
habits, often at a very early age, even in the 
years of infancy; hence, very special atten¬ 
tion should be given to careful supervision in 
this regard. There is no doubt that by suf- 
ciently thorough and careful training, chil¬ 
dren who are known to be burdened by 
heredity with a neurasthenic tendency, may 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


51 


by education be able to form new habits and 
to develop new instincts, which will balance 
and neutralize their ancestral traits and ten¬ 
dencies, and thus prevent any development of 
disease. 

The Question of Heredity Important 

The educator of the future will make a 
study of the child’s heredity as much a matter 
of concern as observation of the child him¬ 
self. It is only, indeed, by a knowledge of 
the character of the child’s hereditary en¬ 
dowment, that the teacher can really under¬ 
stand the nature of the problem which it is 
his duty to solve. 

Our educational methods at the present 
time are exceedingly crude, and take almost 
no account of individual requirements. They 
are largely modeled upon false psychologic 
theories. A small beginning in the direction 
of better methods has been made in the 
establishment of special classes for backward 
and defective children. The study of defec¬ 
tives has developed such a rich fund of facts 
and principles relating to child psychology 


52 


NEURASTHENIA 


and mental growth, that the time cannot be 
far distant when the average and so-called 
normal child will, by the application of these 
facts and principles, enjoy opportunity for 
acquiring through education advantages 
which are not even contemplated in our pres¬ 
ent system of school training. 

Our public school system, though perhaps 
the best in the w T orld, is only a sort of edu¬ 
cational ladder which leads from the kinder¬ 
garten to the university; the chief purpose of 
the university, until recent times at least, 
being to create a sort of aristocracy of 
learned men whose duty it will be “to con¬ 
serve learning.” 

Educational reformers insist that the aim 
of the school and the university should be 
not simply to impart learning, but to give the 
child such a training as will prepare him to 
enter upon life. In a proper sense, this latter 
aim may be broad enough to include all the 
child’s requirements; but not without the 
recognition of the fact that one of the most 
important of these requirements is protection 
against the various evil tendencies, physical, 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


53 


mental, and moral, which have been trans¬ 
mitted to him from his parents. 

Race degeneracy has attained such propor¬ 
tions that the pathological element is becom¬ 
ing predominant. Medical inspection of 
schools, carried out in a most extensive way 
in various countries, has shown that fully 
seventy-five per cent of all children of school 
age present serious physical or mental de¬ 
fects. In many communities the proportion 
is very much higher than this. 

The correction of these defects must be 
recognized as one of the special and most im¬ 
portant functions of the school. No system of 
education can be considered complete which 
does not provide in every grade, from the 
kindergarten to the university, efficient means 
for detecting and combating ancestral ten¬ 
dencies of an undesirable sort. 

Nesteroff found, in a school numbering six 
hundred pupils, thirty per cent showing symp¬ 
toms of neurasthenia, such as persistent 
headache, insomnia, palpitation, sudden neu¬ 
ralgic pains, etc. 

A very significant fact noted by Nesteroff 


54 


NEURASTHENIA 


is the increase of the proportion of neuras¬ 
thenics with each advancing grade. For ex¬ 
ample, he found in the classes of a secondary 
school the following proportion of neuras¬ 
thenic children in the several grades: 

Preparatory class. 8 per cent 

First “ 15 “ 

Second “ 22 “ 

Third “ 28 “ 

Fourth “ 44 u 

Fifth “ 47 “ 

Sixth “ 58 “ 

Seventh “ 64 “ 

Eighth u 89 5 ‘ 











Toxic Neurasthenia 


In by far the great majority of neuras¬ 
thenics, the disorder is simply one of many 
manifestations of a chronic toxemia that may 
be of various origins, or derived from sev¬ 
eral causes combined, the condition being ex¬ 
pressed by the term “toxic neurasthenia.” 
Chronic toxemia is, in fact, a dominant fac¬ 
tor in nearly all cases of neurasthenia, either 
as a primary or a secondary cause. 

The poisons to which chronic toxemia is 
due may be derived from one or all of the 
following sources: (i) The tissues; (2) 
food; (3) intestines. 

Toxemia from Tissue Activities 

The world owes to the late Professor 
Bouchard, the great French physiologist, the 
formulation of the important truth that the 
body is a factory of poisons. Animal life is 
a vital flame. A constant burning is taking 
place in the tissues—an oxidation or combus¬ 
tion, in which the food plays the part of fuel. 


55 


56 


NEURASTHENIA 


It is this constant burring which renders 
necessary the taking of food at regular in¬ 
tervals. To support the work of the body 
and maintain heat requires the daily burning 
of the equivalent of two and a quarter 
pounds of bread, or ten ounces of butter, 
amounting to an annual consumption of 
more than two hundreds pounds of fat, or 
more than eight hundred pounds of bread. 

Combustion in the body gives rise to es¬ 
sentially the same products as burning out¬ 
side of the body. Bread or fat burned in a 
furnace gives rise, not only to heat, but also 
to smoke, ashes, and possibly imperfectly 
burned products. Corresponding products 
are formed when foods are burned in the 
body. Poisonous gases that are formed, espe¬ 
cially carbondioxid, are carried off through 
the lungs. The soluble solid residues, the 
ashes, are dissolved and carried off by the 
kidneys. Imperfectly burned products cor¬ 
responding to the cinders from coal or wood 
fire may be left in the tissues, where they 
become a source of grave mischief. The 
imperfect elimination of these poisons may 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


57 


be a cause of toxemia, and of chronic in¬ 
jury to the nerve and brain cells, and con¬ 
sequently give rise to neurasthenia. 

Tissue work makes uric acid, ammonia, 
and other poisons, and especially fatigue 
\poisons, all of which may become a cause of 
chronic tire and neurasthenia. 

Deficient breathing, deficient skin action, 
deficient liver and kidney activity, deficiency 
of the thyroid gland—all may lead to ac¬ 
cumulation of tissue toxins, a real autointoxi¬ 
cation. This condition necessarily exists in 
practically all adult persons who lead a very 
sedentary life. 

The presence of chronic autointoxication is 
usually shown by a dingy, inactive skin, by a 
scanty and highly colored urine; a stooped 
posture is common, and there is often lack of 
appetite, a bad breath, coated tongue, 
emaciation, and an appearance of general 
feebleness. 

Alimentary Toxemia 

Another source of systemic poisoning is 
one’s food, especially when large quantities 
of flesh food are eaten. Animal flesh closely 


58 


NEURASTHENIA 


resembles human flesh. It contains the same 
waste elements—uric acid, urea, and other 
tissue poisons. Since the tissues of the 
slaughtered animal live for some time after 
the blood ceases to circulate, tissue poisons 
are present in beefsteak, chops and other 
flesh foods in much larger proportion than 
are ever found in living human tissues. The 
total of these extractives is put down by 
Gautier as about ten per cent of the total 
dried substance. Professor Hall, of Man¬ 
chester, England, has shown that a pound of 
beef contains about fourteen grains of uric 
acid, while sweetbreads contain as much as 
seventy grains. 

Tea, coflee, beer, with vinegar, pepper, 
mustard, and other condiments, add to the 
burden of toxicity, overwhelming the elimi¬ 
nating organs, and lead to chronic satura¬ 
tion of the tissues with poisons, and so to 
neurasthenia. 




Intestinal Toxemia 


The third source of poisons, the most im¬ 
portant of all in relation to neurasthenia, is 
the intestines. In the intestines, especially 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


59 


the colon, or large intestine, of practically 
all adult persons, active putrefaction pro¬ 
cesses are constantly in operation. 

Theories innumerable have been elabor¬ 
ated for the explanation of the headaches, 
backaches, neuritis, and various paresthesias 
(numbness, tingling, and other strange sensa¬ 
tions) to which neurasthenics are often veri¬ 
table martyrs. The only satisfactory explana¬ 
tion found has been the effects of various 
toxic substances developed in the intestinal 
tract by putrefactive organisms of various 
sorts. Roger enumerates one hundred and 
sixty different species of germs which thrive 
in the alimentary canal. Of these, more than 
a third are poison-forming organisms that 
convert certain elements of the food, partic¬ 
ularly the protein, or albuminous elements, 
into toxic substances, some of which are tox- 
albumins and possessed of the virulence of 
snake venoms. The well-known skatol and 
indol, which give to the fecal discharges their 
characteristic odor, were shown by the ex¬ 
periments of Herter to be productive of 
headaches of a most pronounced type. 


60 


NEURASTHENIA 


Laboratory workers who have to deal with 
fecal discharges often suffer from headache 
as a result of inhaling the odors emanating 
from the material undergoing examination. 

The headache and other discomforts aris¬ 
ing from constipation, and the promptness 
with which the unpleasant symptoms are re¬ 
lieved by a thorough bowel movement, af¬ 
ford evidence of the influence of intestinal 
poisons in producing neurasthenic symptoms. 

Constipation and Fatigue 

Doctor Lee, of Columbia College, New 
York, has for many years devoted his en¬ 
ergies to the study of the causes of fatigue, 
by means of delicate and precise methods 
and appliances which register the exact effect 
of any drug, or other substance, which may be 
made the subject of inquiry. Doctor Herter 
sent to Professor Lee specimens of pure 
skatol and indol to be tested for their effect 
in producing fatigue. Both were found to 
be powerful fatigue poisons. Animals sub¬ 
mitted to their influence quickly showed the 
well-known symptoms which result from the 
fatigue poisons produced by tissue work. 




ir%s.=s£Qtsif 


atn.ut 


The Liver 












TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


61 


How the Body Protects Itself against 

Poisons 

That every person suffering from constipa¬ 
tion is not a victim of headache or neurasthe¬ 
nia is simply due to the fact that some per¬ 
sons are still able to deal with their colon 
poisons. The body possesses a remarkable 
mechanism for defense against poisons. The 
intestinal wall is a filter which, wdien intact, 
excludes poisons, just as the intact skin is a 
perfect protection against the venom of the 
most poisonous serpent. When the intestinal 
membrane becomes crippled or denuded by 
inflammation, as in colitis, or congested and 
irritated through the use of irritating condi¬ 
ments, or the habitual taking of laxative 
mineral waters or cathartic drugs, the filter¬ 
ing power is lost, and poisons penetrate into 
the blood and reach the delicate brain and 
nerve cells, producing their characteristic ef¬ 
fects. 

In addition to the intestinal filter, the body 
possesses other effective means of combating 
poisons. The liver is a poison-destroying 
organ. Poisons absorbed from the intestine 


62 


NEURASTHENIA 


are conveyed by the portal vein to the liver, 
before entering the general circulation, and 
their toxic properties are there to a very 
large extent destroyed. 

The thyroid gland, the suprarenal cap¬ 
sules, and doubtless other glandular struc¬ 
tures, are also concerned in the defense of. 
the body against intestinal poisons. The kid¬ 
neys rapidly eliminate such toxic substances 
as have not been destroyed, as well as their 
detoxicated derivatives. 

So long as the poison-destroying and elimi¬ 
nating mechanisms of the body are able to 
do their work efficiently, no poisonous effects 
are observed; but when large quantities of 
poisons ^re absorbed during long periods, as 
is the case with persons who are habitually 
constipated, the poison-destroying and 
poison-eliminating mechanisms break down. 
Then an accumulation of the toxins results, 
and general and local symptoms of poisoning 
make their appearance, often ending in neu¬ 
rasthenia. 

A constipated child is a cross, peevish and 
neurasthenic child. Every up-to-date mother 




A Section of the Kidney, Show- The Lungs, Shewing 

ing Suprarenal Capsule Thyroid Gland 







TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


63 


is acquainted with this fact and wisely applies 
the proper remedy. No competent nurse 
would think of giving a tonic or “pick-me-up 1 1 
of any kind to relieve the irritability and 
nervous restlessness of a constipated child. 
The strong fecal odor of the child’s breath, 
as well as the absence of proper bowel move¬ 
ments, affords indubitable evidence of the 
fecal intoxication from which the child is 
suffering, and suggests the appropriate 
remedy—the bowels must be relieved of their 
malodorous and poisonous contents. When 
this is done, the child quickly recovers. 

How strange that so little attention is 
given the condition of the bowels in adults, 
and that headaches, languor, nervousness, 
and other distresses, should be attributed to a 
multitude of vague and occult causes, when 
so very tangible and sufficient a cause as a 
colon filled with putrefying excretions, and 
remnants of undigested foodstuffs, is so much 
in evidence! 

When a doctor is called to investigate the 
health of an infant, he first of all examines 
the stool. This practice is so universal and 


64 


NEURASTHENIA 


so well known, that the nurse or intelligent 
mother always has the soiled napkin ready 
for inspection in anticipation of the doctor’s 
arrival. The stool of an infant should be 
odorless or slightly acid, and yellow in color. 
If the doctor finds a foul odor and a dark 
color, he knows without further investigation 
that the infant is ill. Putrefaction germs are 
flourishing in its colon, and it is suffering 
from general poisoning. 

Significance of Ill-Smelling Stools 

Why, then, should black, foul-smelling 
stools in an adult be regarded with indiffer¬ 
ence? Their meaning is precisely the same 
in an adult as in an infant. The adult be¬ 
comes to a certain degree immune to the 
acute effects of colon poisons, but the chronic 
effects are in no way mitigated by the long 
continuance of the constipated state. Gradu¬ 
ally the defensive powers of the body are ex¬ 
hausted, and there comes the accumulation of 
poisons and the general vital breakdown, of 
which neurasthenia is only a single expres¬ 
sion. Hardening of the arteries, cirrhosis of 
the liver, Bright’s disease, and premature 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


65 


old age, are among the associated evils to 
which neurasthenics are subject. The same 
poisons which set the nerves on edge, which 
harass and cripple the brain; confuse the 
mind, upset the te,mper and change the char¬ 
acter, work havoc with the delicate machin¬ 
ery of liver, kidneys, heart and every vital 
organ; and set in operation a whole train of 
degenerative processes which leave no bodily 
organ or function untouched. 

The fact that a few neurasthenics attain 
advanced age is no contradiction of these 
patent facts. Some persons are endowed 
with constitutions that are remarkably re¬ 
sistant to the attacks of poisons. The life¬ 
long neurasthenic who has attained great age 
belongs in the same physical category with 
the octogenarian tobacco or whiskey devotee. 
He is simply an uncommonly hardy indi* 
vidual who, under more favorable condi¬ 
tions, might have enjoyed an immensely more 
pleasant and efficient life. 

We must also remember that for every 
one of these long-preserved neurasthenics, 
there have been some thousands of others 


66 


NEURASTHENIA 


whose careers have been cut short by Bright’s 
disease, or arteriosclerosis, or other degen¬ 
erative maladies. 

It must be noted also that the long-lived 
chronic invalid is often little better than a 
preserved specimen. By extraordinary care 
many of the ordinary causes of premature 
death have been avoided, so that existence, 
even though crippled and narrowed, is 
lengthened out to an unusual term. 

Foul Stools 

The fact that the bowels move daily, or 
even more than once daily, must not be re¬ 
garded as evidence that no intestinal toxemia 
exists. If the stools are foul smelling, this 
fact alone is ample evidence that active pois¬ 
oning is taking place. Let the skeptical 
reader consider for a moment what would be 
the result if the foul substances discharged in 
a bowel movement were in some way re¬ 
turned into the body. Suppose even that a 
person were for twenty-four hours shut up in 
a close room with the loathsome products of 
a single bowel movement. What visions of 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


67 


sion, and other miseries, rise at the sugges¬ 
tion of such a wretched experience! How 
much more active for evil must be the same 
putrefying mass when retained in the colon, 
and sending into the blood its flood of hor¬ 
rible toxins of varied sorts and potencies! 

Latent Constipation 

While thousands, perhaps millions, of per¬ 
sons are consciously suffering from constipa¬ 
tion and constantly combating this condition 
by pills, mineral waters, and various irritat¬ 
ing drugs which purchase temporary relief 
at the expense of worse mischief later on, a 
much larger number suffer from latent consti¬ 
pation without being in the slightest degree 
conscious of the fact. The bowels move 
daily, but are always a day or two, or even 
several days, in arrears. The foul character 
of the stools, the fecal odor of the breath, a 
coated tongue, foul intestinal flatus — these 
signs are ample evidence of the retention of 
putrefying materials in the colon. 


68 


NEURASTHENIA 


Three Daily Bowel Movements Essential to 

Health 

The bowels should move at least three 
times a day. A movement after each meal is 
the normal intestinal rhythm, with perhaps 
an additional movement on rising. The idea 
that frequent bowel movement is weakening 
is wholly erroneous. It is not the frequent 
movements of diarrhea w T hich weaken the 
patient, but the bacterial poisons w T hich occa¬ 
sion the diarrhea. The acquisition of the 
habit of tri-daily bowel movements will do 
more to help a victim of chronic fatigue out 
of his neurasthenic ruts than any other means 
at present known. No other change of 
habits produces such immediate and striking 
results. This is not a random remark, but a 
carefully considered statement, that is sup¬ 
ported by the personal observation of results 
in hundreds of cases of chronic neurasthenia 
which had long resisted the most varied 
forms of treatment. 

When the bowels are made to move three 
times a day, and are each time well emptied, 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


69 


the undigested remnants of foodstuffs and 
intestinal excretions do not remain long 
enough in the colon to reach a state of ad¬ 
vanced decomposition. Putrefaction poisons 
are produced only in small quantities, and 
still smaller amounts are absorbed. The 
body is at once relieved of the effects of the 
great flood of virulent toxins which have 
been daily and hourly sweeping in upon the 
tissues. A great handicap to the vital forces 
is removed. The liver, kidneys, lungs, skin, 
and other excretory organs, are relieved of 
an abnormal and most onerous burden. They 
are now able to devote their energies to deal¬ 
ing with the normal body wastes, so that the 
tissues are freed from both tissue poisons 
and intestinal toxins. Headaches, languor, 
depression, and bad breath disappear, along 
with the dark circles about the eyes and the 
dingy skin color; appetite returns, and life 
begins to seem worth living. 

Incompetency of the Ileocecal Valve a 
Cause of Toxic Neurasthenia 

A discussion of toxic neurasthenia would 
not be complete without especial reference to 


70 


NEURASTHENIA 


a cause, a very potent cause, of this condi¬ 
tion, which has until quite recently been over¬ 
looked; namely, an incompetent condition of 
the ileocecal valve. 

The ileocecal valve is an interesting struc¬ 
ture placed at the junction of the small in¬ 
testine with the colon, or large intestine. It 
consists of two parts; a circular muscle which 
acts as a sphincter and controls the passage 
of liquid material from the small intestine 
into the colon, and a mechanical part consist¬ 
ing of two membranous lips w r hich, when 
the slightest back pressure occurs, fall to¬ 
gether and cover the opening of the small in¬ 
testine into the colon, thus preventing the 
reflux of fecal matters from the colon into 
the small intestine. This valve is found in 
practically all vertebrate animals, from 
which fact it is fair to infer that its function 
is important in the economy of animal life. 

The alimentary canal of vertebrate 
animals is divided into three parts, known 
respectively as the “fore-gut,” the “mid-gut,” 
and “hind” or “end-gut.” The fore-gut 
consists essentially of the stomach, in which 



The Ileocecal Valve, as Seen from the 
Inside of the Colon 



Normal Ileocecal Valve Incompetent Ileocecal Valve 












TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


71 


the preliminary work of digestion is done. 
The mid-gut consists of the small intestine, 
in which the real work of digestion is per¬ 
formed, and from which the digested food¬ 
stuffs are absorbed. The end-gut consists of 
the colon. 

The Ileocecal Valve 

The stomach may aptly be compared to 
a kitchen; the small intestine may be said 
to be the dining room, while the colon serves 
as a waste and filth receptacle. With these 
facts in mind, the necessity for the presence 
of a check valve between the colon and the 
small intestine is clearly evident. Normally 
no putrefaction takes place in the small in¬ 
testine, so that indol and skatol and other 
products of putrefaction are not found in 
this part of the alimentary canal. But putre¬ 
faction of the contents of the colon is the 
rule in adults who subsist upon a mixed 
dietary. The larger the amount of al¬ 
buminous substances contained in the food, 
—that is, the more largely the diet con¬ 
sists of flesh meats and eggs—the greater 
will be the amount of putrefaction in 


72 


NEURASTHENIA 


the colon, especially if the action of the 
bowels is sluggish—and this condition is al¬ 
most universally present among civilized 
people. So long as the ileocecal valve is in¬ 
tact, these putrefying materials cannot find 
their way back into the small intestine, and 
the amount of poisonous matters absorbed 
will be comparatively small, for the reason 
that the colon is better prepared to defend 
itself against these poisons than is the small 
intestine. When the ileocecal valve is incom¬ 
petent, and putrefying materials find their 
way back into the small intestine, the body 
is flooded with putrefaction poisons, and 
most pronounced symptoms of intestinal in¬ 
toxication occur. This fact w T as pointed out by 
Adolph Schmidt, an eminent German medical 
authority, some years ago. Still earlier, 
Kraus, Hertz, and others, called attention to 
the symptoms strongly indicative of intoxica¬ 
tion that are found associated with incom¬ 
petency of the ileocecal valve. 

Within the last few T years the marvelous 
developments in x-ray technic have made pos¬ 
sible a very exact study of the ileocecal valve, 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


73 


so that its competency or incompetency may 
readily be determined by special methods of 
testing the condition of the valve. A careful 
application of this test in several thousand 
cases, which has been made in the x-ray de¬ 
partment of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, 
under the supervision of the able Roentgen¬ 
ologist in charge of this department, Dr. J. 
T. Case, has shown that incompetency of the 
valve exists in about one person in six of 
those examined; all of whom were, of course, 
suffering from indigestion, constipation, or 
some other disturbance of the stomach or in¬ 
testines. A careful clinical study of several 
hundred persons whose valves have thus been 
found to be incompetent, has proved beyond 
chance for doubt the close association be¬ 
tween this condition and chronic intestinal 
toxemia. The symptoms of toxic neuras¬ 
thenia have been found almost universally 
present, though in a considerable number of 
cases the neurasthenic symptoms have been 
largely overshadowed by still greater diffi¬ 
culties; such as gall stones, duodenal ulcer, 
gastric ulcer, and other organic affections 


74 


NEURASTHENIA 


which are the natural result of chronic in¬ 
testinal toxemia. 

The Treatment of Toxic Neurasthenia 

The treatment of this condition will be 
dwelt upon with considerable detail for the 
reason that it is applicable and, in fact, 
fundamentally important in all cases of neu¬ 
rasthenia, whether recognized as toxic or 
placed in some other class. The fact is, it is 
almost impossible to find a neurasthenic who 
does not show evidences of autointoxica¬ 
tion or alimentary toxemia. 

Chronic poisoning is, in the opinion of the 
writer, the dominant factor in all cases of 
neurasthenia, and hence the first considera¬ 
tion in the treatment of these cases is to rid 
the body of poisons, so as to give the crip¬ 
pled nerve cells an opportunity to recuperate, 
and to repair the damages to which they have 
been subjected. A cell that is poisoned by 
putrefactive toxins from the intestine, or by 
retained tissue wastes, is unable to gather 
stores of energy from the blood like a nor¬ 
mal cell, and may be so paralyzed that it 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


75 


cannot make use of the stores of energy that 
it still retains. 

There are three great objects to be at¬ 
tained in the successful treatment of cases of 
toxic neurasthenia: the suppression of in¬ 
testinal putrefaction, increased elimination, 
and improved tissue building. 

One of the most frequent ways in which 
the chronic toxemia of neurasthenia shows 
itself is colitis. A common form of colitis, 
pseudo-membranous colitis, has long been re¬ 
garded as a nerve disorder. It is a very fre¬ 
quent accompaniment of neurasthenia, and 
was thought to be due to some nervous dis¬ 
turbance. This view was doubtless the out¬ 
growth of the fact that this disease generally 
accompanies very marked neurasthenic symp¬ 
toms. The truth appears to be, however, 
that colitis is simply another consequence of 
the same causes which produce neurasthenia. 

Colitis is an infection of the colon due to 
the presence of certain micro-organisms, 
several varieties of which, according to 
Doctor Tissier, of the Pasteur Institute, are 
capable of producing colonic infection. 


76 


NEURASTHENIA 


In general, the germs which produce putre¬ 
faction are capable of giving rise to this con¬ 
dition. The chronic intestinal toxemia which 
accompanies neurasthenia, a dominant factor 
in a majority of cases of neurasthenia, is also 
associated with colitis, both as a cause and a 
consequence. Colitis, by producing a dis¬ 
eased condition of the mucous membrane, 
lessens its ability to resist the poisons which 
are produced in abnormal quantities in the 
cavity of the intestine, since these toxic sub¬ 
stances readily pass though the congested, 
irritated, or abraded mucous membrane. 
Colitis is, then, a cause of neurasthenia and 
not a result of this condition. Colitis can be 
cured only by changing the intestinal flora. 

Changing the Intestinal Flora 

Every neurasthenic needs to have his in¬ 
testinal flora changed. That is, he needs to 
get rid of the putrefactive bacteria which are 
manufacturing poisons in his colon, and to 
replace them by harmless acid-forming bac¬ 
teria, w T hich not only protect the body by 
eliminating the growth of putrefactive or- 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


77 


ganisms, but render important aid to bowel 
action by furnishing a normal stimulus to the 
colon by the harmless acids which they pro¬ 
duce. 

Not a Simple Task 

To read the advertisements of the com¬ 
mercial distributers of Metchnikoff’s Bulgar¬ 
ian milk tablets, one would imagine the 
change of intestinal flora to be an exceed¬ 
ingly simple process. No one who has ever 
undertaken the task of changing the flora in 
a case of chronic intestinal intoxication will 
be able to subscribe to this view. To change 
the flora in such cases is indeed difficult, and 
often a tedious process. Nevertheless, 
it can be done, and with sufficient patience 
and persevering effort it may be accom¬ 
plished in every case. It cannot be done, how¬ 
ever, without the application of the most 
thoroughgoing measures; and not one meas¬ 
ure only, but many must be applied, either 
in succession or in combination, as the indi¬ 
vidual case may require. When the change is 
once accomplished, the methods by which the 
change has been effected must be continued 


78 


NEURASTHENIA 


indefinitely, to prevent a return of the wild 
bacteria, together with the consequences 
which result from the absorption of the poi¬ 
sons which they produce. 

The following account of the method of 
changing the intestinal flora, which has been 
worked out under the writer’s supervision 
and successfully employed at the Battle 
Creek Sanitarium in hundreds of cases, is 
taken from a recent medical paper by the 
author: 

How to Change the Intestinal Flora 

Putrefaction processes are the result of 
the growth in the intestine of microscopic 
organisms, which Herter refers to as “wild” 
bacteria. Parasitic growths are not necessary 
to a state of perfect health, but are intro¬ 
duced by means of milk polluted with barn¬ 
yard filth, flesh foods undergoing the first 
stages of putrefaction, stale eggs, cold stor¬ 
age meats, preserved fish, old cheese, and 
other decomposing foodstuffs. 

The first thing necessary is to get rid of 
the wild bacteria, and to restore the normal 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


79 


friendly bacteria with which Nature supplies 
the intestine within a few hours after birth. 
These bacteria are acid-forming ferments, 
and when present in abundant quantity, the 
acids which they produce prevent the de¬ 
velopment of the poison-forming bacteria, 
thus combating intestinal autointoxication. 

Three things are essential for change of 
the intestinal flora: 

First, increased activity of the intestine; 
that is, more frequent bowel movement. 

Second, an anti-toxic diet; that is, the use 
of foods which will not undergo putrefaction 
in the colon. 

Third, the introduction into the intestine 
of friendly, or acid-forming, bacteria. 

We have not the space in this little volume 
to dwell at length upon the methods by which 
these three important measures may be suc¬ 
cessfully accomplished. 

Briefly, the essentials may be summarized 
as follows: 

To Increase Bowel Activity 

The bowels should move after every meal, 
or at least three times a day. Increased 


80 


NEURASTHENIA 


bowel activity may be encouraged by use of 
the following measures: (a) Increased bulk 
of food; (b) free use of fresh fruits and 
fresh vegetables; (c) regularity in relation 
to bowel movement; (d) special exercises to 
strengthen the abdominal muscles and en¬ 
courage bowel activity; (e) use of the 
enema, with the water at 8o° F.; (f) the 
use of Japanese sea-weed or agar-agar, com¬ 
mercially known as colax; of paraffin oil 
(a specially purified emulsion and known as 
para-lax which has been found useful) and 
of wheat bran, and other food laxatives. 

The Atoxic or Anti-toxic Diet 

Meats of all sorts must be discarded. In 
extreme cases, eggs and milk must also be 
omitted from the bill of fare, at least for a 
time. It is often most gratifying to note how 
quickly the tongue clears, the breath becomes 
sweet, headaches, depression of spirits, feel¬ 
ing of biliousness and other distresses dis¬ 
appear after the adoption of a strictly anti¬ 
toxic dietary. The advantages of the grape 
cure, and numerous other fruit cures, are 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


81 


wholly dependent upon the anti-toxic char¬ 
acter of these special diets. Putrefactive 
bacteria feed upon protein, and thrive espe¬ 
cially well on animal protein. When animal 
proteins of all sorts are carefully excluded 
from the dietary, and when a low-protein 
diet is adopted, putrefactive bacteria are 
starved out; and nearly all the protein taken 
as food is digested and absorbed, leaving no 
residue to undergo putrefactive changes. 

It is true that mucus, bile, and other in¬ 
testinal secretions, may still supply material 
to feed the putrefactive bacteria, but cer¬ 
tainly the intensity of the putrefactive pro¬ 
cesses in the intestine may be greatly lessened 
by carefully excluding from the dietary all 
putrescible food substances. 

It should also be noted that it has been 
shown by Kendall, and others, that when the 
diet consists largely of carbohydrates, espe¬ 
cially starch in the form of various farina¬ 
ceous foodstuffs, such as rice, potato, etc., the 
putrefactive bacteria, even though they may 
be present in the intestine, do not form 
toxins, but act with the friendly organisms 


82 


NEURASTHENIA 


in forming harmless acids, thus suppressing 
the putrefactive processes. 

This observation by Kendall explains the 
benefit derived in many cases from the use of 
raw or uncooked food. As a fad, the raw 
diet idea has doubtless been overworked and 
may have done some harm, but there can be 
no doubt that the diet of primitive man con¬ 
sisted of uncooked foodstuffs, and the same is 
true of the big apes, man’s closest relatives 
in the animal world. In order entirely to 
suppress putrefactive processes in the intes¬ 
tine, it is necessary to take starchy foods in 
such form that a considerable portion will 
reach the colon in an undigested state. This 
may be done by taking food in a raw or 
partially cooked state, as starch is much less 
readily digested when raw than when cooked. 

The Scotch Highlanders prepare a dish 
which they call “brose,” by pouring boiling 
water upon oatmeal and stirring it for a 
moment. This half-cooked cereal is a staple 
article of diet with the Scotch. Through its 
laxative and anti-toxic properties it is highly 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


83 


promotive of the good health which Scotch 
Highlanders proverbially enjoy. 

The Bulgarian Bacillus and Other Anti¬ 
toxic Ferments 

Doctor Tissier, of the Pasteur Institute, 
discovered the anti-toxic properties of acid¬ 
forming bacteria. Through his studies, 
Metchnikoff became acquainted with the 
value of the Bacillus Bulgaricus and similar 
organisms as a means of combating putre¬ 
factive processes in the colon. Tissier also 
discovered that another organism known as 
the Bacillus bifidus possesses similar proper¬ 
ties and in a higher degree, since the Bacillus 
bifidus is a natural inhabitant of the intestine, 
while the Bacillus Bulgaricus is not. The 
Bacillus bifidus always appears in the intes¬ 
tine of an infant within six hours after birth 
in summer, and twenty in winter, and 
through the acids which it forms it protects 
the intestine from the inroads of the putre¬ 
factive organisms. The Bacillus glycobac- 
ter, recently discovered by Wollman, of the 
Pasteur Institute, promotes the growth of 


84 


NEURASTHENIA 


Bacillus Bulgaricus and Bacillus bifidus by 
forming from starch the sugar which is es¬ 
sential to the growth and activity of the 
Bacillus Bulgaricus and Bacillus bifidus. 

These friendly organisms may be taken in 
special cultures, and when liberally and regu¬ 
larly used, are found to be remarkably useful 
in re-establishing the normal flora of the in¬ 
testine, suppressing putrefaction, and thus 
delivering the body from the baneful influ¬ 
ence of the putrefactive poisons which are 
responsible for a long category of human ills. 

Light Baths for Neurasthenics 

Important eliminative work is per¬ 
formed by the skin, lungs and kidneys. The 
activity of these organs must be encouraged, 
and there are no better means of accomplish¬ 
ing this than by natural methods that in¬ 
crease the activity of the skin, such as the 
electric light bath, the sun bath and the air 
bath. The hot bath, the sweating pack, 
the steam bath, and other sweating pro¬ 
cedures, are also useful. The electric 
light bath is best of all, for the reason 



The Electric Light Bath 














































































TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


85 


that it stimulates, in the most powerful man¬ 
ner, the circulation of the skin, and is sus¬ 
ceptible to the nicest regulation. This bath, 
which was originated and first used by the 
writer more than twenty years ago (1891), 
is now found in all the leading hospitals of 
Europe and is rapidly gaining favor in this 
country. 

The electric light cabinet also has the ad¬ 
vantage that it may be conveniently em¬ 
ployed in one’s own home. The bath may be 
installed in any ordinary bath room or sleep¬ 
ing room, and is always ready for use at any 
moment. 

Sweating measures should not be greatly 
prolonged in cases of neurasthenia, on ac¬ 
count of the depressing effect of heat when 
long continued. The duration of the bath 
should rarely exceed fifteen minutes, and 
often five or six minutes is quite sufficient. 
The primary purpose of the bath is to start 
vigorous sweating. It is not desirable that 
the sweating be continued long enough to 
produce any considerable degree of deple¬ 
tion. The bath should be concluded by a cold 


86 


NEURASTHENIA 


application of some sort. The cold shower 
douche, the wet sheet rub, the cold towel rub, 
or the salt glow, are all appropriate finishing 
measures, and are most important tonic ap¬ 
plications. 

Training the Skin 

In persons who are highly sensitive to cold 
and do not react well to cold applications, the 
cooling off may be accomplished by means 
of the neutral bath or graduated shower. 
The temperature of the application begins at 
about ioo° F., or body temperature, and is 
gradually cooled down to 90° or 88° F. The 
patient remains in the bath until the skin re¬ 
turns to its normal temperature; that is, until 
the heat absorbed from the heating bath has 
been wholly removed. After the bath, the 
patient may rest for an hour and should then 
feel much refreshed. 

An effort should be made to train the skin 
to bear cold water, as by this means stronger 
impressions may be made upon the central 
nervous system, and more powerful tonic 
effects are secured. When the patient is able 
to endure strong cold treatments, the bath 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


87 


should be followed by moderate exercises for 
half an hour or so, to promote reaction 
and secure circulation. By repeated applica¬ 
tions of this sort, the circulation of the skin, 
which in neurasthenia is generally poor, may 
be wonderfully improved. As the skin fills 
with blood, the congested internal organs are 
relieved of their surplus blood; congestion of 
the brain, of the liver, stomach, and other 
viscera, disappears, and gradually the normal 
balance in the blood distribution is restored. 

“Tonics” Useless “Nerve Foolers” 

The neurasthenic is constantly told that his 
nutrition is defective, that he needs building 
up. He seeks to accomplish this by means of 
tonics of various kinds, in most of which 
strychnia is the dominant element. This 
“building up” is purely fictitious, for it is 
only through the use of natural physiologic 
agencies that tissue building can be acceler¬ 
ated or improved. Tonics make the patient 
feel better without making him better. They 
have been aptly termed “nerve foolers.” 
They produce a false sense of vigor and 


88 


NEURASTHENIA 


energy, which results in the further draining 
of the patient’s already depleted stores of 
energy and vitality. 

What the neurasthenic needs is tissue re¬ 
construction. He needs better nerve cells, 
stronger nerves, neurons with a better store 
of energy granules. 

The Simple Life Essential 

In another chapter a series of rules has 
been given for the practice of simple life 
principles. There can be no doubt that the 
best way to aid Nature in the work of re¬ 
building a depreciated body is to be found in 
a thorough adoption and careful following 
of these “return-to-Nature” principles. It is 
not necessary to repeat here what has 
been said upon this subject. It is quite 
sufficient to say that every neurasthenic must 
lead the simple life, not temporarily, but con¬ 
tinuously and permanently. 

A neurasthenic has a broken-down consti¬ 
tution. He is not necessarily a physical 
wreck, but his body is crippled in a way that 
limits his energies and restricts his activities. 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


89 


Unfortunately, the injury which he has re¬ 
ceived is more or less a permanent one, and 
hence the remedy must be permanent also. 

When a constitution is once broken down 
under disease-producing conditions, the most 
that can be hoped for as a result of treat¬ 
ment is such a restoration of the injured 
organism as will enable it to perform its 
work in a reasonably satisfactory manner, 
under conditions adapted to the individual 
case. These favorable conditions, when once 
established, must be permanently main¬ 
tained. 

Out -of-Door Living 

The out-of-door life is as necessary and 
valuable in the restoration of neurasthenics 
as in the cure of pulmonary tuberculosis. 
This simple natural measure owes its effec¬ 
tiveness to the fact that it restores the pa¬ 
tient to one of the conditions of primitive 
human life. Man is naturally an out-of-door 
dweller. Many of his maladies, including 
neurasthenia, are the result of indoor dwell¬ 
ing, through which the vitalizing effects of 
light and an open-air life are lost. Exercise 


90 


NEURASTHENIA 


in the open air is indispensable to permanent 
restoration. Exercise must be taken judi¬ 
ciously and systematically. There is nothing 
better than out-of-door work. The work 
cure is especially valuable, because it occu¬ 
pies the mind as well as the muscles. 

Fresh-air sleeping is of highest import¬ 
ance. There are many ways of securing out- 
of-door air during sleep. See accompany¬ 
ing cuts. 

Cold Bathing 

The cold bath often accomplishes won¬ 
ders for the neurasthenic. Every one is 
familiar with the agreeable effects of the ap¬ 
plication of cold water to the face and hands 
when one is weary or exhausted. The fu¬ 
sillade of impressions which fall upon the 
brain as the result of a general cold bath is 
through the excitation of the millions of 
“cold spots” of the skin, and is a most pow¬ 
erful means of exciting languid nerve cells 
into renewed activity. The reaction after the 
properly administered cold bath is an ex¬ 
ceedingly agreeable experience and is not 
followed by the unpleasant depression which 



A Window Tent 



A Fresh-Air Dormitory 


























































An Ideal Sleeping Balcony 

A covet can de dropped behind the bed to keep it indoors 
during the day time, and in front of the bed to keep it out 
doors at night. 















TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


91 


follows the use of drug tonics or stimulants. 
Cold is much more than a temporary stim¬ 
ulant. Continuous or repeated applications 
of cold have a powerful influence upon meta¬ 
bolism. This is well shown in the improved 
appetite which follows wise applications of 
cold water. Improved appetite is only an 
indication of improved assimilation, and 
means accelerated tissue building, which is 
the only way by which the neurasthenic can 
hope to be permanently lifted out of his 
wretched state, and placed upon a durable 
foundation of good health. 

A cold morning bath properly adminis¬ 
tered is a complete antidote for the morning 
depression experienced by many neuras¬ 
thenics. It is of the highest importance, 
however, that the bath should be taken in a 
proper way. The average neurasthenic 
would be little likely to receive benefit from 
a plunge into a tub filled with cold water. 
Such a bath would likely be followed by an 
aggravation of symptoms, increased pain, in¬ 
creased depression, increased disturbances of 
circulation, as shown by cold hands and feet, 


92 


NEURASTHENIA 


etc. A single trial would be sufficient to 
discourage further efforts in the direction of 
cold bathing. Neurasthenics are generally 
highly sensitive to the effects of cold water, 
and on this account it is necessary that sev¬ 
eral important precautions should receive 
careful attention. 

Here are a few rules which should be 
borne in mind: 

1. A cold bath should never be taken 
when one is tired or exhausted. 

2. Applications toward which there is an 
instinctive dread should in general be 
avoided. The bodily instincts generally 
crave things that are good for the body, and 
repel things likely to do harm. 

3. General cold applications should never 
be made when the skin is cold, when a sen¬ 
sation of chilliness is present, when the 
hands and feet are cold, or when the head is 
hot. In such cases, the skin must be warmed 
by a warm bath, such as the electric light 
bath, or the hands and feet should be heated 
by placing them in water, and the head cooled 
by the application of a towel wrung out of 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


93 


cold water (not ice-water). The cold bath 
must also be avoided when the body is much 
fatigued or overheated. In such a case a 
very short hot bath should be taken and fol¬ 
lowed by a neutral rub (92°-96° F.). 

The Cold-Air Bath 

Generally the best time for a cold bath is 
immediately on rising in the morning. In 
many cases it is well to begin with a cold-air 
bath. The patient gets out of bed, removes 
his sleeping garments, and walks about the 
room while rubbing the skin vigorously with 
the hands, swinging the arms about, hopping 
up and down, or exercising with light dumb¬ 
bells or Indian clubs. , 

Feeble patients may lie upon the bed with 
the clothing removed, and exercise by raising 
the legs, swinging the arms about, rolling 
over, deep breathing, etc. As soon as the 
slightest chilly sensation is felt, the patient 
should return to bed, cover well, and rest 
until good reaction occurs; that is, until he 
feels warm and comfortable. 

In winter time a cold-air bath may be 
made a most effective tonic measure. When 


94 


NEURASTHENIA 


the temperature of the air is very low, the 
time of exposure may be made quite short, 
and the body may be exposed three or four 
times for one or two minutes at a time. An 
important point is to secure a good reaction 
after every cold application. In warm 
weather, cooling effects may be obtained by 
means of an electric fan. 

The Cold Towel Rub 

An effective cold water bath may be taken 
in a variety of ways. A simple plan is the 
towel rub. This requires the services of an 
attendant in case the patient is feeble, but 
may be self-administered by a person of 
average strength. This bath consists simply 
of wringing a towel out of cold water and 
then rubbing the whole surface of the body 
with the wet towel until the skin is reddened 
and a good reaction produced, then drying 
well. A feeble patient should rest in bed for 
a half hour after, well covered to promote 
reaction. A stronger person should take a 
walk, or other exercise, for half an hour. 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


95 


Tk3 Cold Tub or Shallow Bath 

A more vigorous bath may be taken by 
standing or sitting in a bath tub containing 
two or three inches of cold water and apply¬ 
ing the water to the whole surface of the 
body, with vigorous rubbing with the hands 
or with a sponge or towel. Such a bath 
should be of very short duration, not more 
than half a minute, or a minute at the long¬ 
est. With beginners, the duration should be 
not more than ten or fifteen seconds. 

The Rowing or Surf Bath 

The cold bath is by far most effective 
when combined with exercise. Swimming 
and surf baths are justly noted as the best of 
all forms of cold bathing for general tonic 
effects. An accompanying cut shows a de¬ 
vice which the writer has had made for his 
own use, by means of which a rowing or surf 
bath may be taken in an ordinary bath tub. 
The device consists of a short bar, with 
handles at each end, to which is attached a 
heavy rubber cord and a scoop-shaped dip¬ 
per. In use, the rubber cord is looped over 


96 


NEURASTHENIA 


the faucet fixture at the foot of the tub. 
Rowing movements are then executed and 
with each movement a dipperful of water 
is scooped up and dashed against the chest. 
As the body is inclined backward the water 
flows up around the neck, over the shoulders, 
and down the back. With energetic move¬ 
ments the effects of a real surf bath are well 
reproduced. 

The amount of exercise may be made as 
great as desired by prolonging the bath. The 
bath may begin at pipe temperature; or, 
starting as a warm bath, the cold water fau¬ 
cet is opened and thus the temperature falls 
gradually while the body is warmed by the 
muscular work. 

After the Bath 

After a cold bath the surface of the body 
should be well rubbed with a Turkish sheet 
or towel until well dried. Persons with sensi¬ 
tive skins should apply white vaseline or 
some good unguent after the bath, so as to 
prevent the irritation which often results 
from frequent bathing, especially in cold 



The Bath Exerciser, or Surf Bath 






Vj» 







TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


9/ 


weather, or when the air is dry, or when very 
hard water is used. 

A most excellent unguent for this purpose 
is a formula which was kindly given us by 
Dr. L. D. Bulkley, the eminent skin special¬ 
ist of New York City: 

Lanolin . 2 drams 

Boroglyceride . 1 dram 

Cold Cream (made with white 
Vaseline) . 6 drams 

When there is itching or burning of the 
skin, ten grains of menthol may be added to 
the above. 

By taking care to coat the skin with this 
simple preparation after every bath, the irri¬ 
tation which arises from the drying and 
chapping of the skin (which exposes the deli¬ 
cate nerve filaments) may be prevented. 





Nervous Dyspepsia, Gastric, 
Splanchnic or Visceral Neuras¬ 
thenia; the “Blues” 

The Chinese believe the seat of the soul 
to be the stomach. The ancients regarded 
the bowels as the seat of the emotions. The 
old Greeks called a man who was depressed 
a hypochondriac (below the ribs), while we 
say he is “down in the mouth,” because of 
the fact that the angles of his mouth are 
drawn down instead of up, as in smiling or 
laughing. There is really good basis for 
the ancient notions referred to. The vis¬ 
cera of the abdomen are much more closely 
associated with character and mental states 
than we appreciate. 

We do not think with the stomach nor 
feel with the intestines, but the state of the 
stomach and bowels influences our thoughts 
and our emotions to a striking degree. The 
region of the stomach is the seat of the 
solar plexus, that great abdominal brain 


98 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


99 


which exercises a controlling influence over 
all the functions of digestion, blood-circula¬ 
tion, elimination—all the automatic pro¬ 
cesses of animal life. The great sympa¬ 
thetic chain of ganglia is the center of the 
organic life of the body. 

Through the close association of the ab¬ 
dominal brain and the cerebrum, there is an 
intimate connection between digestion and 
mental action. It is through this association 
of the cranial brain and the abdominal brain 
that mental states affect digestion so pro¬ 
foundly, and the reverse. Nausea and even 
vomiting may be produced by purely mental 
impressions. In like manner, disturbed di¬ 
gestion may react upon the mental state un¬ 
favorably. 

This association of the solar plexus and 
the brain explains in part the mental mis¬ 
eries of the nervous dyspeptic, but not 
wdiolly. The after-dinner drowsiness, ner¬ 
vousness, and depression, are to a large ex¬ 
tent dependent upon the relation of the ab¬ 
dominal blood-supply to that of the brain. 
The large vessels which supply the stomach, 


100 


NEURASTHENIA 


intestines, and other abdominal viscera, are 
together known as the splanchnic vessels. 
These blood-vessels, including the portal 
vein and its branches, form the most capa¬ 
cious vascular area in the body. These 
great vessels have twice the capacity of 
those of the muscles, and fifty per cent more 
than the vessels of the skin, and are cap¬ 
able, when distended, of holding all the 
blood of the body. After a meal, they be¬ 
come distended with blood as the result of 
the physiologic congestion attending diges¬ 
tion. Through lack of proper nervous regu¬ 
lation, the vessels of the various organs of 
digestion are in the neurasthenic patient 
widely dilated, so that these organs are over¬ 
filled with blood. The effect is to rob the 
brain of blood during the early part of the 
digestive process. 

This fact explains the mental confusion, 
inefficiency, drowsiness, and sometimes faint¬ 
ness, that follow a meal in cases of gastric 
neurasthenia. 

Many gastric neurasthenics suffer from 
hyperacidity due to excessive secretion of 



The Portal Circulation 


























NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


101 


gastric acid. With this condition is usually 
associated an excessive secretion of fluid, as 
the result of which an abnormal amount of 
fluid is withdrawn from the blood, which 
still further decreases the supply of blood 
to the brain. How serious a matter this 
may be will be realized when it is recalled 
that the total amount of liquid abstracted 
from the blood in the formation of the di¬ 
gestive fluids during a single day may 
amount to five quarts or more. 

Worry Excites the Abdominal Brain 

Overactivity or too prolonged activity of 
the brain, especially worry and harrassment 
of the mind, unquestionably excite the ab¬ 
dominal brain to a harmful degree and lead 
to gastric and other visceral disturbance. 
Many gastric neurasthenics are able to di¬ 
gest an ordinary meal without difficulty 
when the mind is at ease, but lose both 
appetite and digestive power as soon as an 
unpleasant emotion takes possession of the 
mind. The writer recalls the case of a man 
who was unable to eat for several days 


102 


NEURASTHENIA 


after encountering an offensive and malo¬ 
dorous object in his garden. He at once be¬ 
gan vomiting. For a number of days when¬ 
ever he sat down to the table to eat, a men¬ 
tal picture of the offensive object rose in his 
mind, he became nauseated, and was obliged 
to leave the table immediately, and would 
vomit until exhausted. 

Pawlow has shown the intimate relation 
between the brain and the stomach in the 
production of appetite juice, and the depend¬ 
ence of good stomach function upon agree¬ 
able sensations associated with food and 
eating. The gastric neurasthenic is to an 
abnormal degree susceptible to these in¬ 
fluences, and hence needs to be informed of 
the importance of giving heed to these re¬ 
lations in his eating habits. 

The Splanchnic Pool 

But there are still other factors, largely 
mechanical, which play a most important 
part in the phenomena of this diseased con¬ 
dition. The splanchnic circulation is sub¬ 
jected to mechanical as well as to nervous 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


103 


control. The large vessels which compose 
the splanchnic circulation are supported 
and compressed by the muscular walls of the 
abdomen. It is this support and pressure 
which prevents the vessels from becoming 
overdistended with blood when the body is 
in the upright position, thus depriving the 
rest of the body of the needed blood-supply. 
Without this support, the erect position, es¬ 
pecially if suddenly assumed, would give 
rise to pallor and faintness because of the 
withdrawal of blood from the brain. This 
often occurs in gastric neurasthenics of a 
pronounced type. This is one explanation of 
the vertigo to which this class of neuras¬ 
thenics is much subject. These symptoms 
are most likely to occur soon after eating, 
because of the accumulation of blood in the 
vessels of the stomach and intestine, result¬ 
ing from the excitation of the digestive 
glands. Temporary relief may be obtained 
by lying down. 

Weakened Abdominal Muscles 

An examination of these very interesting 
cases shows a marked weakness of the ab* 


104 


NEURASTHENIA 


dominal muscles. Generally there is marked 
prolapse of the abdominal organs, and a 
characteristic figure and standing attitude. 

Weakness of the trunk muscles, resulting 
in a sagging of the abdominal wall and a 
prolapse of the viscera, must be regarded 
as one of the causes of gastric or splanchnic 
neurasthenia, one of the most common re¬ 
sults of a sedentary life. The deforming 
bulge of the lower abdomen is most com¬ 
monly seen in persons of sedentary habits. 
It is most common in women, but profes¬ 
sional men of all classes very frequently 
present the same ungainly shape of body and 
suffer from the natural consequence— 
splanchnic engorgement and visceral neu¬ 
rasthenia. 

Important Functions of the Diaphragm 

A factor which adds to the injury result¬ 
ing from defective development of the trunk 
muscles is the interference with the normal 
functions of the diaphragm in breathing. 
This great muscle, which forms the partition 
between the thorax or chest and the abdomi- 


/ 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


105 


nal cavity, is not simply an organ of respira¬ 
tion. The diaphragm in its downward move¬ 
ments not only draws air into the lungs by 
an action resembling that of the piston of a 
pump, but while producing a suction effect 
in the chest, the descending diaphragm at 
the same time compresses the liver, stom¬ 
ach and other viscera against the tense ab¬ 
dominal wall, and thus empties them of 
blood and so assists the portal circulation, 
propelling the venous blood of the abdo¬ 
men toward the heart. 

Congested and Crippled Viscera 

When the abdominal muscles are weak 
and relaxed through lack of tone, or when 
they are relaxed by a stooped position in 
sitting or standing, the movements of the 
diaphragm are necessarily rendered ineffec¬ 
tive and have little influence upon the ab¬ 
dominal circulation. The result is that the 
blood stagnates in the liver, spleen, stom¬ 
ach, and other viscera. Blood stagnation al¬ 
ways means an accumulation of toxins. The 
oxygen of the blood is consumed and a con- 


106 


NEURASTHENIA 


dition closely bordering on asphyxia results. 
The half-asphyxiated viscera cannot properly 
perform their functions, digestion fails, and 
the liver lags in its work of destroying 
poisons and purifying the blood. The 
colon, the movements of which are greatly 
aided by the movements of the diaphragm, 
becomes inactive, stasis or stagnation occurs, 
and colitis is the natural result, with chronic 
intestinal toxemia and a growing accumula¬ 
tion of physical discomforts and disabilities. 

Bad Effects of Corset Wearing 

Corset wearing in women, compression of 
the waist with belts sometimes practiced by 
men, and other conditions are potent in 
breaking down the blood-circulating function 
of the diaphragm and thus increasing the 
congestion of the great sympathetic centers, 
producing irritation with reflex disturbances 
of the central nervous system, which shows 
itself in a great variety of mental and ner¬ 
vous symptoms; such as coldness of the 
hands and feet, tingling and numb sensa¬ 
tions, blushing of the face and head, mental 



Normal Waist Viscera 


Constricted Viscera, Prolapsed 








NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


107 


dullness, irritability, insomnia, fidgets and 
other neurasthenic miseries, to say nothing 
of the more serious structural and organic 
changes which later appear in the liver, 
stomach, spleen, kidneys and blood-vessels. 

Many women wear their clothing so tight 
at the waist that the diaphragm is forced 
high up in the chest and is there held, so that 
natural breathing is impossible (see accom¬ 
panying cut). This is unquestionably a most 
prolific cause of the “nervousness” so nearly 
universal among well-to-do American 
women. 

Disordered Abdominal Brain 

In certain cases, the congestion of the 
solar plexus and other sympathetic ganglia 
is so pronounced that it becomes the source 
of much distress and uneasiness. Extreme 
tenderness at the pit of the stomach and 
about the umbilicus, frequently accompanied 
by palpitation of the aorta in the same 
region, creates a suspicion of the existence 
of aneurism of the abdominal aorta, an er¬ 
ror in diagnosis into which even physicians 
are not infrequently led. In these cases the 


108 


NEURASTHENIA 


abdominal muscles, instead of being relaxed, 
are not infrequently in a state of spasm, the 
result of reflex stimulation from the irritated 
sympathetic centers. These patients gener¬ 
ally note that the palpitation increases after 
eating and when obliged to stand long on 
their feet. After a meal the pulsation of 
the aorta is so violent as to produce actual 
physical disturbance. Exercise upon the 
feet, especially after eating, is accompanied 
by backache, increasing coldness and clam¬ 
miness of the hands and feet so long as the 
exercise is continued, relief being obtained 
only by a recumbent posture. 

Overeating, hasty eating with neglect to 
masticate food properly, overloading the 
stomach by drinking an excess of liquids at 
meab, and chronic constipation with the re¬ 
sulting colitis—these are frequently among 
the active factors in the development of 
nervous depression. 

Treatment of Splanchnic Neurasthenia 

The rational treatment of visceral neu- 
rasthenia demands first of all, development 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


109 


of the muscles of the trunk and training 
in correct posture. These two things are, 
in fact, the most essential features of the 
successful management of these cases. A 
case which illustrates the truth of this state¬ 
ment first came under the writer’s profes¬ 
sional care some thirty years ago. The pa¬ 
tient was a great sufferer from typical vis¬ 
ceral neurasthenia. Insomnia, despond¬ 
ency, and physical inefficiency, had reduced 
him to a most wretched condition. In spite 
of the most thorough application of hydro¬ 
therapy, together with other physiologic 
measures, including careful regulation of 
diet, this patient made very little improve¬ 
ment and after three months returned to his 
home without material change for the bet¬ 
ter. Three years later, the same patient re¬ 
appeared and reported that despite various 
changes of climate and following the advice 
of a great many prominent physicians, his 
condition was practically the same as when 
he was first seen. 


110 


NEURASTHENIA 


A Bad Neurasthenic Cured by Correction of 

Posture 

In the meantime the writer had made a 
careful study of the effect of posture and 
muscular development in these cases, and 
recognized at once the characteristic outline, 
as the patient stood with flat chest, rounded 
shoulders, and bulging lower abdomen. The 
patient was at once given a lesson in correct 
sitting and standing and was taught a variety 
of exercises for the development of the ab¬ 
dominal muscles. An abdominal supporter 
was applied to hold the viscera in place 
while the muscles were being developed, with 
the result that in six weeks the patient de¬ 
clared himself substantially well and re¬ 
turned to his home. A year or two later 
when we were on a visit to Boston the pa¬ 
tient called at our hotel and reported him¬ 
self to be in perfect health. He attributed 
his recovery entirely to change of posture 
and abdominal support. He declared he felt 
immediately relieved as soon as the chest 
was lifted and the abdominal muscles drawn 
in and held in place. This has been the 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


Ill 


experience of many hundreds of patients who 
have received the same prescription within 
the last thirty years. 

Always Carry the Chest High 

The accompanying cuts show correct and 
incorrect standing and sitting positions and 
also indicate a simple method for acquiring 
a correct position in sitting and standing- It 
must be constantly held in mind that the 
chest is always to be carried high. By this 
means the abdominal muscles are rendered 
tense, and thus form a firm resisting wall 
against which the abdominal viscera may be 
pressed by the descending diaphragm. 

A Simple Method of Acquiring a Correct 

Standing Position 

In a correct standing position, a plumb line 
dropped from the ear should fall just back 
of the first joint of the great toe. Many 
persons stand with the hips placed so far 
forward that if a plumb line were dropped 
from the ear it would fall opposite the heel. 
In this position, the chest is flattened, the ab¬ 
dominal muscles are relaxed, and the lower 


112 


NEURASTHENIA 


abdomen protrudes. In a correct position, 
the chest is carried well forward, the hips 
are held well back. The back is quite 
strongly concave, and the anterior wall of 
the trunk is convex. The abdominal muscles 
are well drawn in. This position may be 
secured without the aid of an instructor by 
the following method: 

Standing with the back against a wall or 
a door, brace the heels, hips, shoulders, back 
of head and the little finger side of each 
hand firmly against the wall. Now push the 
shoulders forward away from the wall, by 
bending the head backward until the eyes 
look straight up to the ceiling, keeping the 
heels, hips and hands firmly pressed against 
the wall so as to fix the muscles of the trunk; 
then bring the head forward away from the 
wall, drawing down the chin without allow¬ 
ing the shoulders to move backward. 

The poise of the body will now be found 
very nearly correct, but slightly exaggerated. 
Relax the muscles slightly while still 
holding the chest up; step out from the wall, 
swinging the arms, and the result will be a 


SSSft 




Incorrect Standing 


Method of Getting Correct 
Standing Posture. (First Po¬ 
sition.) 














Getting Correct Standing Correct Standing Posture 
Posture. (Second Position.) 
















NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


113 


perfect standing and walking poise. Per¬ 
sons past middle life whose occupations have 
been sedentary, especially those who have 
been occupied with desk work, are generally 
flat chested and round shouldered to a very 
marked degree. Not infrequently in such 
cases, so extensive changes of the muscles and 
bones have occurred, that the form of the 
body has become fixed and cannot be entirely 
corrected. This is especially true in cases in 
which ossification of the cartilages of the 
ribs has taken place. Even in such cases, 
however, very great improvement may be 
secured, and the benefit to be derived from 
an approximate approach to correct attitude 
is so great that the effort is well worth 
while. 

How to Acquire a Correct Sitting Attitude 

After having acquired a correct standing 
attitude, it is easy to acquire a correct 
position in sitting. One soon learns to 
recognize the “feeling” of the correct posi¬ 
tion. Once acquired, it is very easy by a 
simple voluntary effort to at once assume a 


114 


NEURASTHENIA 


correct poise, no matter what the general 
posture of the body may be. The important 
points are that the chest should be held high 
and the abdominal muscles well drawn in. 

When a correct poise is maintained in sit¬ 
ting in a chair with a straight back, the trunk 
of the body will touch the back of the seat 
only at the top and bottom; the central por¬ 
tion of the trunk will be held free from the 
chair back; but to maintain such an attitude 
becomes exceedingly tiresome, for it necessi¬ 
tates the persistent contraction of the 
muscles of the back. Hence the back of 
chairs, settees or other seats should have a 
forward curve so that the central portion of 
the trunk may be supported. This will ob¬ 
viate the necessity for continued muscular 
effort in sitting, and will in consequence 
greatly add to the comfort, and render the 
seat more comfortable and restful. 

Disease-Promoting Chairs 

Many chairs are made with hollow backs 
which are in the highest degree objection¬ 
able. Most chairs are constructed with ref¬ 
erence to artistic effects rather than to meet 



The Physiologic Chair 










NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


115 


physiologic needs. The defect of the or¬ 
dinary chair may be partially remedied by 
means of a cushion placed in a position to 
support the hollow of the back, as shown in 
the accompanying cut. 

A very simple exercise will enable any one 
easily to put himself in a correct sitting posi¬ 
tion. The various steps in the procedure 
are as follows: Sitting in a chair, place the 
hands upon the hips with the thumbs behind. 
Bend the body forward and head backward, 
keeping the eyes on the ceiling. Now make * 
very hard pressure with the thumbs and 
maintain this pressure while bringing the 
trunk up to the ordinary sitting position, 
drawing down the chin as the trunk is raised. 
The purpose of making pressure with the 
thumbs is to keep the trunk rigid, so that the 
chest will be held up and only the upper and 
lower parts of the trunk will touch the back 
of the chair, while the central part of the 
back, the so-called “small of the back,” is 
held forward free from the chair. The chest 
will be found to be held well up and the ab¬ 
dominal muscles drawn in. If now a small 


116 


NEURASTHENIA 


cushion is placed behind the back, it will be 
found that the chest still remains elevated 
after the muscles are relaxed, because the 
back is prevented from receding. 

Correct posture in standing and walking is 
of the highest importance as a means of pre¬ 
serving health, and must be kept constantly 
in mind by persons suffering from prolapse 
of the abdominal organs and splanchnic 
neurasthenia. 

The Abdominal Supporter 

A properly constructed and well adjusted 
abdominal supporter is of the greatest serv¬ 
ice in these cases. The purpose of the ab¬ 
dominal supporter is not simply to hold in 
position the abdominal viscera. The real ad¬ 
vantages gained from the abdominal sup¬ 
porter are chiefly two, as follows: 

The first, is increase of the intra-abdomi¬ 
nal tension, whereby the large vessels of the 
abdomen are supported, thus preventing an 
undue accumulation of blood, w T hich neces¬ 
sarily occurs when the walls of the abdo¬ 
men are relaxed. This advantage is chiefly 
gained during inspiration, when by descent 





Incorrect Silting in an Ordinary Chair 







Correct Sitting in an Ordinary Chair with a Cushion to 

Support the Back 










Relaxed protuberant ab¬ 
domen, a result of bad sit¬ 
ting position. 


The same person stand¬ 
ing, poise corrected and ab¬ 
domen held up by a spring 
supporter. 


Mmum 




































. 








































NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


117 


of the diaphragm the viscera are strongly 
compressed and emptied of their blood. By 
the compression below the diaphragm com¬ 
bined with suction above the diaphragm, the 
blood is efficiently aided in its progress 
toward the heart, thus relieving the visceral 
congestion, which, by giving rise to visceral 
irritation, is a source of a multitude of back¬ 
aches, side-aches, leg-aches, and other mis¬ 
eries from which neurasthenic patients suf¬ 
fer. 

Advantages of Abdominal Support 

The second advantage of the abdominal 
supporter, and one of no small importance, 
is the assistance it renders the patient in 
his efforts to maintain a correct posture. 
The pressure of the supporter is a constant 
suggestion to the wearer to sit erect. When¬ 
ever the chest is allowed to drop, the bend¬ 
ing of the trunk renders the supporter un¬ 
comfortable and thus prompts the wearer 
to assume a correct posture. 

Every visceral neurasthenic will be bene¬ 
fited by the wearing of a good supporter, at 
least during the first months of treatment, 


118 


NEURASTHENIA 


until the abdominal muscles become suffi¬ 
ciently strengthened and the patient suffi¬ 
ciently trained to make the maintenance of 
the correct posture possible without the aid 
of the supporter. With persons who are 
considerably past middle life and in whom 
the abdominal muscles have become so weak¬ 
ened that development to the point of effi¬ 
cient service is no longer possible, and es¬ 
pecially in those cases in which the spine 
has become straight and rigid, the normal 
anterior lumbar curve having been destroyed 
by habitual standing and sitting in a re¬ 
laxed or stooped posture, the abdominal 
supporter must be worn permanently. 
Spinal rigidity is also sometimes the result 
of chronic arthritis of the vertebrae. These 
cases also require the use of the abdominal 
supporter, which often affords very great 
comfort through relief of strain upon the 
nerves of the mesentery, which are rendered 
painfully sensitive by the chronic congestion 
of the sympathetic ganglia and the drag of 
heavy viscera. 















































































NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


119 


Curative Exercises 

Among the most important of all the cura¬ 
tive measures which can be brought to bear 
in these cases, are special exercises for the 
development of the muscles of the trunk, 
and especially the abdominal muscles. All 
exercises of the trunk which are taken with 
the chest held well forward, and the ab¬ 
dominal muscles held in, are beneficial. But 
most valuable of all are exercises taken 
with the body in a reclining position. For 
the best effect the body should be supported 
at an angle of about forty-five degrees, with 
the head low. In this position, gravitation 
renders valuable assistance in restoring the 
prolapsed viscera to their position in the up¬ 
per part of the abdominal cavity; and the 
size and the weight of the viscera are greatly 
lessened by the drainage of the abdominal 
cavity into the upper part of the body, which 
empties the viscera of their blood. An ordi¬ 
nary ironing board may be easily converted 
into an exercise table by resting one end 
upon the floor and the other upon the win¬ 
dow sill or the side of a bed. 


120 


NEURASTHENIA 


The writer has devised an exercise table 
which has been found very convenient for ex¬ 
ercises for developing muscles of the trunk, 
and for correcting spinal curvatures, which 
are often a result of deficient development 
of the trunk muscles. This table and some 
of the various exercises which may be taken 
with it are illustrated in accompanying cuts. 

Special Exercises with the Inclined Table 
for Neurasthenics 

The foot of the table should be raised 
about eighteen inches. The position of the 
patient should be the one shown in the ac¬ 
companying cut, the head resting on the floor, 
the body supported by the inclined surface 
of the table. 

Replacement and De-congesting Exercises 

The purpose of these exercises is to re¬ 
store the stomach and colon to the upper 
part of the abdomen where they belong, and 
to drain the congested organs of their sur¬ 
plus blood. The body is prevented from 
slipping down by passing the feet through 
the loops. By grasping the hand rests at 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Head Raising 



Trunk Raising 









































































INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Breathing Exercise 



Replacing Viscera 










II 












































































NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


121 


the sides of the table the body may easily 
be lifted back into position if it slides down. 
The chest should be held high during all 
the exercises. To aid in keeping the chest 
up it is well to place a pillow or a pad at 
the “small of the back.” By this means the 
chest may be fixed in an elevated position. 
The large muscles of the abdomen are made 
tense and thus the act of breathing becomes 
more efficient. While holding the body in 
this position take the following exercises: 

Exercise 1 

1. Breathe deeply while percussing and 
beating the abdomen vigorously. 

Exercise 2 

2. Deep breathing, hands grasping the 
sides of the table, pull with the hands while 
breathing out. This fixes the chest in a high 
position and so secures full action of the ab¬ 
dominal muscles. 

Exercise 3 

3. Deep breathing, hands clasped over 
lower abdomen, pressing firmly during both 


122 


NEURASTHENIA 


inspiration and expiration. This strengthens 
the breathing muscles. 

Exercise 4 

4. While breathing deep, finger tips 
touching, make pressure upon the abdomen 
with the little finger side of the hands, start¬ 
ing just above the pubes and working slowly 
upward an inch or two at each breath. The 
pressure should be continuous during ex¬ 
piration and inspiration. Repeat six or 
eight times. This lifts the prolapsed stom¬ 
ach and bowels into position. 

Effect of Breathing Exercises 

The effect of the above exercises, if they 
are properly taken, is to aid gravity in lift¬ 
ing the prolapsed stomach and bowels and 
other organs into position. It is very im¬ 
portant that they should be taken before 
taking other exercises, so that the prolapsed 
organs may be restored to their normal 
place, as exercises taken with the organs in 
a wrong position are likely to do quite as 
much harm as good. 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Legs Flexing, Trunk Twisting 



Legs Flexing, Trunk Twisting 







INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Trunk Raising for Weak Persons 



Hips-Raising, Knees Separating 














NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


123 


Exercises for Strengthening the Muscles of 
the Neck and Trunk 

The following series is carefully gradu¬ 
ated so as to avoid harm to feeble persons 
who are not accustomed to much use of the 
muscles: 

Head Raising Exercises 

1. Head Raising. 

a. With hands grasping the strap, 
pull and raise head forward as 
far as possible. 

b. Grasp the handles and raise the 
head. 

These exercises should be repeated eight 
to sixteen times. 

It is a good plan to regulate the exercises 
by counting, or with instrumental music. 

2. Trunk raising. 

The body is raised to the sitting position, 
assistance being given by pulling upon the 
strap. The trunk raising may be assisted 
also by grasping the handles at the sides of 
the table. After a time the muscles of the 
trunk become stronger so that this move- 


124 


NEURASTHENIA 


ment may be easily executed without the as¬ 
sistance of the strap. For full exercise of 
the abdominal muscles the hands are placed 
on the hips. 

Among the exercises which are especially 
useful in developing muscles of the trunk 
are the following, to be taken on the in¬ 
clined exercise table: 

1. Flex and extend the feet. 

2. Rotate the legs, outward and inward. 

3. Flex and extend the legs. 

4. Stretching. 

With the knees flexed: 

1. Knees separating. 

2. Flips raising. 

3. Knees separating, hips raising. 

4. Hips rolling, knees extending and flex¬ 
ing. 

Skilled Direction Valuable 

While the accompanying cuts give a very 
good idea of how the exercises should be 
taken, it is best that the exercises should be 
directed at first by a trained person. 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Leg Raising 



A Vigorous Trunk Exercise 









Drug Neurasthenia 

Within the last half century, and partic¬ 
ularly within the last twenty-five or thirty 
years, there has been developing in the 
United States a growing army of neuras¬ 
thenics whose brains and nerves have been 
damaged by the habitual use of toxic agents 
of various sorts. Every opium or cocaine 
habitue and every chronic inebriate is a 
neurasthenic and may have been such before 
he began the use of the enthralling drug. 
The ranks of drug habitues are constantly 
recruited from the great and growing horde 
of neurasthenics in every civilized land. 
Many a poor fellow finds his neurasthenic 
tortures so acute that he can no longer en¬ 
dure them, and knowing no other way of 
escape, he flees to the oblivion afforded by 
a narcotic drug, only to find his sufferings 
increased when the effect of the drug has 
passed; and so from day to day he sinks 
deeper in the mire of disease until he finally 
lands in the lunatic asylum, unless he is fort- 


125 


126 


NEURASTHENIA 


unately sooner carried off by some acute or 
chronic affection of the kidneys, heart, or 
lungs. 

These poor unfortunates are scarcely to 
be blamed for their attempt to find relief 
in narcotism. They are simply driven be¬ 
fore a blast of mental and nervous anguish 
which their weak wills cannot withstand. 
They have no chance for their lives. Made 
neurasthenic by bad heredity and ignorance 
of the principles of “right living,” they drift 
helplessly to their fate. It is high time that 
the State should offer a helping hand to 
these unhappy sufferers. Institutions should 
be provided where at State expense they may 
be shielded from temptation, taught self- 
control, and trained in normal habits. Little 
can be done for patients of this class except 
in institutions where they may be under com¬ 
plete control, and may have the benefit of ex¬ 
pert medical attention and treatment by 
specially trained nurses. 

But there is another still larger class of 
drug neurasthenics who may be helped by 
the adoption of correct habits and the 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


127 


avoidance of the causes of their malady. 
These are the habitual users of “tonics,” 
“hypnotics,” and various other medicinal 
drugs and nostrums of divers sorts. In this 
class must also be included many of the users 
of tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol in so- 
called “moderation.” 

Strychnia has for generations been the 
popular tonic. Countless thousands have 
been deceived by its delusive effects. Physi¬ 
cians are chiefly responsible for the false con¬ 
fidence reposed in this powerful nerve ex¬ 
citant. Modern studies of nutrition have 
clearly demonstrated the futility of attempt¬ 
ing to find any substitute for the vital energy 
generated by healthy cells acting under the 
influence of normal or physiologic stimuli. 
The apparent increase in vigor which fol¬ 
lows a dose of strychnia is not due to an 
actual addition to the sum of bodily en¬ 
ergies, but is simply the result of a forced 
expenditure of energy which is already de¬ 
pleted to the point of danger. Strychnia 
and other similar drugs are simply devices 
for getting out of a man energy which he 


128 


NEURASTHENIA 


cannot afford to spare and which he ought 
to keep. The jaded journalist needs a rest 
instead of a tonic. The tonic may for the 
time being conceal from him the fact that 
he needs a rest, but the rest is needed none 
the less, and in due time will be imperatively 
demanded with interest. 

The mischief done by these factitious 
remedies, and the way in which they lead 
straight to neurasthenia are well illustrated 
by the following case, hundreds of examples 
similar to which might be cited from the 
writer’s experience. 

Some years ago the writer received a let¬ 
ter from a physician in a distant State, de¬ 
scribing the case of a patient whom he de¬ 
sired to bring to the institution for treat¬ 
ment. The lady, the doctor said, had ac¬ 
quired the morphine habit and was con¬ 
stantly requiring larger doses, so that it was 
evidently necessary that something should be 
done. In due time the doctor arrived with 
his patient and told the following story: 

“Some two years ago,” said the doctor, 
“the patient came to me for a tonic to help 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


129 


her through a church fair, of which she was 
the director. She was simply tired out, but 
felt that she must get through with the affair 
and wanted some sort of a tonic to brace 
her up. I gave her some two-grain quinine 
pills to be taken, one three times a day. She 
felt better for a few days, then came back 
for something stronger, so I gave her some 
strychnia pills in addition to the quinine. 
This worked very well for a short time; then 
she came complaining that she could not 
sleep at night, so I gave her bromid. This 
worked well for a few days, then I had to 
add chloral. Then she complained that she 
felt bad in the morning, that the pills did not 
seem to help her sufficiently, and I had to in¬ 
crease the dose of strychnia. This increased 
the sleeplessness, so I had to give her mor¬ 
phia to enable her to sleep. Her bowels 
became bad, so I had to begin giving her 
laxatives. The effect of small doses of mor¬ 
phia soon wore out, and I had to give her 
larger doses. Then I had to increase the 
laxatives, until finally I was obliged to give 
her croton oil to secure any bowel move- 


130 


NEURASTHENIA 


ment. After a while this seemed to lose its 
effect, and now I am giving her two table¬ 
spoonfuls of unground mustard seed before 
breakfast, which is the only thing that will 
move her bowels. I have also recently added 
arsenic as a tonic, so that now she is taking 
two grains of quinine, one-thirtfeth of a grain 
of strychnia, one-twentieth of a grain of ar¬ 
senic, each three times a day; and at night 
twenty grains of chloral and thirty grains of 
bromid of potassium. She has to have sev¬ 
eral grains of morphia every night and 
morning. Today (day of arrival) I have 
given her eleven grains of morphia.” 

The patient’s condition was wretched to 
the last degree. She had no appetite, was 
emaciated, skin the color of leather, highly 
neurasthenic, extremely irritable and de¬ 
pressed. The patient was quickly weaned 
from her drugs by the means of a simple 
nutritious diet, together with baths, massage, 
and physiologic measures of various sorts, so 
that in the course of three or four months 
she was quite restored to health, and in fact 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


131 


declared herself to be perfectly well for the 
first time in years. 

Many thousands of patients have been in 
a similar way drugged into neurasthenia by 
irrational treatment. The lack of success of 
routine methods of dealing with this class 
of patients, and the disastrous results often 
seen from drug habits acquired through the 
prescription of physicians and druggists, may 
be largely responsible for the development 
in modern times of Christian Science, the 
mind cure and various other occult methods. 
However irrational they may be, they are 
certainly no more irrational than some of 
the methods which they supplant and, to 
say the least, they produce less deplorable re¬ 
sults. 

The use of hypnotics to induce sleep has 
been a most prolific cause of drug neuras¬ 
thenia. Bromids, once exceedingly popular, 
have now fallen into disuse, largely because 
of the nervous depression following their 
employment. The writer recalls numerous 
cases which illustrate the nerve-paralyzing 
effects of the bromids. One case was that of 


132 


NEURASTHENIA 


a lady brought from a neighboring State by 
her husband and her physician, who carried 
her in their arms from the carriage to the 
train. The lady was unable to walk be¬ 
cause of a persistent vertigo, and a weakness 
in the legs which made it impossible for her 
to stand upright. At the end of three or 
four days the patient was walking all about 
the grounds, to her great surprise and 
delight. Her recovery was so rapid as to 
seem almost miraculous. The reason for 
the sudden disappearance of her distressing 
symptoms was disclosed when she men¬ 
tioned the fact that her physician had left 
her a bottle containing a solution of bromid, 
with instruction that she take a teaspoonful 
whenever she felt nervous. She said she had 
felt nervous all the time and so had taken a 
teaspoonful every half hour or so until she 
came to the institution. The vertigo and the 
weakness of the legs were simply the toxic 
effects of the bromid which she had been 
taking. 

Other drugs, not much less harmful 
than chloral and potassium bromid, are now 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


133 


fashionable remedies for sleeplessness and 
nervousness, but certainly these drugs, like 
their predecessors, are by no means innocent. 
Their habitual use sooner or later results in 
a neurasthenic state which can only be cured 
by complete abandonment of the drug, and 
building up of healthy nerves through good 
nutrition and other physiologic means. 

Tea and Coffee Neurasthenics 

The widespread use of tea and coffee in 
England and America and in other civilized 
countries, is unquestionably a prolific cause of 
neurasthenia, especially in women who, on 
the whole, seem to be more susceptible to 
these drugs than are men, and more ad¬ 
dicted to their use. 

A man or woman who cannot begin a day’s 
work in comfort without one or two cups of 
tea or coffee, or who suffers from headache 
or nervousness when deprived of the accus¬ 
tomed beverage, is a tea or coffee neuras¬ 
thenic and as much a drug habitue as a per¬ 
son who is addicted to the use of opium or 


cocaine. 


134 


NEURASTHENIA 


Tea and coffee topers are increasing in 
numbers, notwithstanding the wide diffusion 
of information concerning the pernicious 
character of these drugs. Persons who are 
predisposed to neurasthenia very naturally 
resort to tea and coffee to steady their 
nerves, to drive away depression, or to re¬ 
lieve mental confusion. 

The tea pot, in many homes, is kept hot 
as a ready resort for relief from headache, 
certain forms of which, while produced and 
aggravated by the use of tea and coffee, are 
temporarily relieved by a cup of strong tea 
or coffee. That these drugs produce decided 
injury to the nerves is not surprising when 
the fact is known that every cup of so-called 
good coffee contains not less than four grains 
of caffein, a poison which is practically 
identical with uric acid. Urine contains six 
grains of uric acid to the quart, or one-fifth 
of a grain to the ounce. It is thus ap¬ 
parent that the average cup of coffee con¬ 
tains fully three times as much uric acid, 
or its equivalent, caffein, as does the same 
quantity of urine. 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


135 


The writer has met a number of cases of 
tea-tasters’ neurasthenia. The symptoms of 
this disease are now well known, and fre¬ 
quent descriptions of cases of this sort are 
found in recent medical literature. The fol¬ 
lowing description of a case appeared in the 
Journal of Mental and Nervous Diseases : 

“The immediate effects upon him are as 
follows: in about ten minutes the face be¬ 
comes flushed, the whole body feels warm or 
heated, and a sort of intellectual intoxica¬ 
tion comes on, much the same in character, 
it would seem, as that which occurs in the 
rarefied air of a mountain. He feels elated, 
exhilarated, troubles and cares vanish, 
everything seems bright and cheerful, his 
body feels light and elastic, his mind clear, 
his ideas abundant, vivid and flowing fluently 
into words. He has found from experience 
that the workings of his intellect are really 
more clear and vigorous than at any other 
time. This is not a delusion on his part, for 
at this time he can ‘talk a man over,’ and 
make a more advantageous bargain than at 
others. 


136 


NEURASTHENIA 


“At the end of about an hour’s tasting a 
slight reaction begins to set in; some head¬ 
ache comes on; the face feels wrinkled and 
shriveled, particularly about the eyes, which 
also get dark under the lids. 

“At the end of two hours this reaction has 
become fully established, the flushed, warm 
feeling has passed off, the hands and feet are 
cold, a nervous tremor comes on, accom¬ 
panied with great mental depression. And 
he is now so excitable that every noise 
startles him; he is in a state of complete un¬ 
rest and mental exhaustion; he has no cour¬ 
age to do anything; he can neither walk nor 
sit down, owing to his mental condition, and 
he settles into a complete gloom. His body 
in the meanwhile does not feel weary. Cop¬ 
ious and frequent urination is always pres¬ 
ent, as also certain dyspeptic symptoms, such 
as eructations of wind, sour taste and other 
conditions. 

“The above-described immediate effects 
follow a single afternoon’s tea-tasting. They 
may be summed up briefly as excited circu¬ 
lation, intellectual intoxication, with actual 





DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


137 


increased vigor of mind power, increased 
urination; then a period of collapse indicated 
by cold extremities, tremulousness, mental ir¬ 
ritability and anxiety. It will be several days 
before this condition of affairs is amended. 
And at this time the temptation to take 
alcoholic stimulants is very strong, indeed. 

“The chronic effects are few and decided. 
Headache is frequent, principally frontal 
and vertical; a ringing and buzzing in the 
ears is very constant; black spots often flit 
before the eyes, and he sees flashes of light. 
Vertigo also is very persistently present; he 
cannot look up at a clock on a steeple with¬ 
out staggering. Insomnia exists to a con¬ 
siderable extent; he seldom has a good 
night’s sleep, and he dreams much, but his 
dreams are of a pleasant character; he some¬ 
times sees visions when not sleeping. Dys¬ 
pepsia is more troublesome than any of the 
foregoing three symptoms. This the pa¬ 
tient assigns strictly to tea-tasting, since it 
is made worse by tea, and improves when 
he abstains from it, though now becoming 
confirmed. His appetite is capricious, he 


138 


NEURASTHENIA 


feels heavy at the epigastrium, he has eruc¬ 
tations and a sour taste, and finds that cer¬ 
tain kinds of food distress him. He has a 
frequent gurgling and is in the habit of 
‘working’ his whole chest and abdomen to 
make the gas pass off. 

“His mental condition is peculiar. He 
lives in a state of dread that some accident 
may happen to him; in the omnibus, fears a 
collision; crossing the street, fears that he 
will be crushed by passing teams; walking 
on the sidewalks, fears that a sign may fall, 
or watches the eaves of the houses, thinking 
that a brick may fall down and kill him; 
under the apprehension that every dog he 
meets is going to bite the calves of his legs, 
he carries an umbrella in all weathers as a 
defense against such an attack. He often 
dreads entering his office for fear of being 
told that some business friend has failed; 
and, in short, lives in a state of constant 
foreboding of some impending evil. At 
times his left leg drags and feels numb, and 
he is conscious of an unsteady gait. 

“The chronic effects above described, as 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


139 


distinguished from the immediate effects, 
are, in brief, vertigo, headache, insomnia, 
dyspepsia, mental depression, almost 
amounting to delusions, and also some slight 
subjective and objective signs of a central 
disturbance of both sensibility and motility.” 

Tobacco Neurasthenia 

Tobacco neurasthenia is most frequently 
encountered in young men, especially clerks 
and others employed in offices, and those fol¬ 
lowing other vocations of a sedentary sort. 
The well-known effects of tobacco upon the 
sympathetic system render it especially ac¬ 
tive in the development of the neurasthenic 
state. 

In experiments on animals the physiolo¬ 
gist habitually makes use of nicotine as a 
means of paralyzing the sympathetic nerve, 
which it seeks out with unvarying certainty. 

The toxic effect of tobacco upon the sym¬ 
pathetic nervous system is shown by the 
nausea, vertigo, and great depression gener¬ 
ally produced by the first pipe or cigar in 
the would-be devotee of the drug. Trembling 
of the hands, intermittent beating of the 


140 


NEURASTHENIA 


heart, shortness of breath and loss of en¬ 
durance, are effects which regularly follow 
the habitual use of tobacco. No intelligent 
trainer will permit a man preparing for an 
athletic event to make use of tobacco in any 
form. A large proportion of young men 
who are refused admission to the army at 
the recruiting bureaus are rejected because 
of neurasthenic symptoms due to the use of 
tobacco. The man whose nerves are un¬ 
steady and who cannot work without his pipe 
or cigar has already become a tobacco neur¬ 
asthenic. 

There are tobacco users who notice so lit¬ 
tle effect from the drug that they can dis¬ 
pense with the usual pipe or cigar without in¬ 
convenience. Such persons have not yet be¬ 
come neurasthenic but will sooner or later 
develop toxic symptoms, such as high blood- 
pressure, albuminuria, or some chronic af¬ 
fection of the heart, lungs or nerves. 

Alcohol and Neurasthenia 

Multitudes of neurasthenics resort to 
alcohol for benumbing their nerve sensibil¬ 
ities and thus relieving their discomforts. 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


141 


The temporary relief thus obtained never 
leads to a cure but only intensifies the 
malady. Alcohol is not a stimulant, and 
does not increase nervous energy, nor does 
it enable the nerve cells of the body to in¬ 
crease their output of energy. Alcohol is a 
narcotic. It lessens the output of nervous 
energy as certainly as do all other narcotics. 
It produces its effects by lessening sensibility. 
It hampers digestion, cripples the heart, 
damages the kidneys, hardens the liver, and 
works havoc with every tissue and function 
of the body. Its effects are evil, and only 
evil. The apparent benefit it affords is a 
delusion and a snare by which the attention 
of the user is diverted from the real cause 
of his trouble, with the result that he is lured 
on to greater disasters. 

Treatment of Drug Neurasthenia 

Drug neurasthenia is of all forms of this 
disease the most amenable to treatment. The 
withdrawal of the particular drug or drugs 
to which the victim of drug neurasthenia has 
been addicted is almost invariably followed 
by a rapid recovery. The chief difficulty in 


142 


NEURASTHENIA 


dealing with these patients is to get the pa¬ 
tient over the first few days of discomfort 
which must naturally follow the withdrawal 
of the drug. By the use of appropriate meas¬ 
ures, however, the distress usually suffered in 
this transition period may be very greatly 
mitigated and in many cases almost wholly 
overcome. Patients who have been depend¬ 
ent upon tonics, at first feel somewhat let 
down when the drug is withdrawn, but by 
the tonic applications of cold water, that 
have been recommended in previous chap¬ 
ters, and by other measures, the nerve tone 
is rapidly built up and the patient soon feels 
a real increase in vitality and vigor; and he 
realizes that his improvement rests upon a 
substantial basis, which could not be the case 
from the use of any drug. 

Hypnotics are easily dispensed with when 
the methods recommended in the present 
volume are faithfully employed. There is 
no hypnotic drug which possesses half the 
power to produce healthful sleep as does 
the neutral bath. Tea and coffee and to¬ 
bacco may be discarded at once and with im- 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


143 


mediate advantage. The tapering off plan 
seldom succeeds and requires more resolu¬ 
tion than immediate and complete dropping 
of the drug. The nervous and other dis¬ 
tressing symptoms which sometimes follow 
the disuse of these drugs are very promptly 
relieved by such simple measures as the neu¬ 
tral bath, hot and cold applications to the 
spine and fomentations to the abdomen, fol¬ 
lowed by vigorous rubbing. Fomentations 
of the abdomen are particularly useful in 
case of persons who have been addicted to 
the tobacco habit, because of the especial 
pernicious influence of tobacco upon the sym¬ 
pathetic nerves and nerve centers, as well as 
the splanchnic vessels. 

Professor Kreuzfuss, of Vienna, has 
shown that arteriosclerosis of the abdo¬ 
minal vessels is a common result of tobacco 
using and, according to Doctor Janeway, of 
New York, a single cigar is capable of raising 
the blood-pressure twenty points in thirty 
minutes. High blood-pressure is a very 
common symptom among smokers. Appli¬ 
cation of heat to the abdomen relieves the 


144 


NEURASTHENIA 


irritation of the sympathetic system and ex¬ 
ercises a highly favorable influence upon the 
abdominal circulation. 

Sweating baths are also useful in these 
cases as a means of aiding the elimination of 
the drug and accumulated waste matters, 
thus preparing the way for thorough tissue 
regeneration. 

In cases in which the drug habit has been 
formed in consequence of an existing neu¬ 
rasthenia, it is evidently necessary that thor¬ 
oughgoing measures should be adopted for 
the cure of the primary disease. 

In addition to the special methods recom¬ 
mended above, the drug neurasthenic must 
become a faithful adherent to the simple life 
rules which have been fully outlined in an¬ 
other chapter. 

Drug neurasthenics are always subject to 
fits of depression, especially when any at¬ 
tempt is made to stop the use of the drug or 
to lessen the dose. The reason for this de¬ 
pression is the overstimulation of the supra¬ 
renal capsules which will gradually disappear 
when the drug is withdrawn. 


Religious Neurasthenia 

The venerable Bishop Vincent, of Chau¬ 
tauqua fame, once remarked in a public ad¬ 
dress: “Some people think they have ex¬ 
perienced religion when they have only had 
a bilious attack.” Such persons are generally 
religious neurasthenics. Their creed is a 
neurasthenic theology and their religion a 
refined sort of pessimism. They discern on 
every storm cloud the face of an angry 
Providence, and interpret every calamity, 
personal or national, as the visitation of the 
wrath of God. These unhappy souls live 
under a perpetual shadow because of their 
perverted ideas of life here and hereafter. 

A religious neurasthenic may be in part a 
product of wrong education. The morbid 
ideas entertained by these unfortunate peo¬ 
ple are by no means held by a few indi¬ 
viduals, but are widely current in certain re¬ 
ligious communities, whose neurasthenic 
leaders are often regarded with a sort of 


145 


146 


NEURASTHENIA 


reverent awe. The writer has met not a few 
of these unhappy folks, whose lives were 
made joyless, and in many cases hopeless, by 
pessimistic religious views and the melan¬ 
choly piety which they cultivated. 

Both Body and Mind Need Care 

Neurasthenia is active, both as a cause and 
a consequence, in these cases. An improved 
physical condition often leads to an im¬ 
proved state of mind. For complete cure, 
the appropriate measures must be applied to 
both mind and body. Not a few such persons 
have been helped by embracing Christian 
Science, or the Emmanuel Movement. While 
Christian Science is not scientific, nor alto¬ 
gether Christian, it must be acknowledged 
that many through its influence have been 
helped to a comfortable, happy and useful 
life, but unquestionably the same results 
might be attained without Christian Science. 

From a logical standpoint Eddyism is 
neither science nor philosophy. Neverthe¬ 
less, some of the ideas presented by this 
curious cult, though not peculiar to or origi- 


RELIGIOUS NEURASTHENIA 


147 


nal with it, are sound and wholesome. Mrs. 
Eddy herself was unquestionably a neuras¬ 
thenic. It is probable that a very large pro¬ 
portion of her followers are also neuras¬ 
thenics. Christian Science, in the absence of 
a more rational remedy, may be of service 
to these sufferers, and the writer is quite will¬ 
ing to give the cult whatever credit may be 
due it. 

The real cure for religious neurasthenia is 
to be found in a broader concept of God and 
His universe, and a healthier and sounder 
faith. An abiding confidence that “the 
Judge of all the earth will do right” by 
every human being ought to cast out fear. 
“In quietness and confidence shall be your 
strength,” said the ancient prophet. 


Sexual Neurasthenia 


The sexual neurasthenic is the most diffi¬ 
cult type with which the physician has to 
deal. In the majority of cases the patient 
is a victim of sexual excesses or perversity 
of some sort, although in some cases no 
doubt the sexual errors have been provoked 
by the neurasthenic state. 

The majority of subjects are young men, 
although young women are not exempt. The 
symptoms described by these sufferers pre¬ 
sent a sorry picture of mental and moral 
obliquity wdiich cannot be put in print. The 
patient persistently reiterates his morbid 
feelings as often as the physician or any¬ 
body else can be induced to listen to them. 
He has usually tested the virtues of all the 
patent medicines advertised in the news¬ 
papers, and has been victimized by every 
quack within reach, and unfortunately is in 
too many cases so far deteriorated in moral 
character and will-power that little can be 
accomplished for him. Patients who are 


148 


SEXUAL NEURASTHENIA 


149 


willing and able to cooperate with intelligent 
efforts made in their behalf can usually be 
greatly helped, often entirely cured. Not a 
few are really more frightened than sick, as 
the result of reading patent medicine adver¬ 
tisements and the sensational literature sent 
out by so-called “specialists.” These cases 
are most hopeful and are quickly restored 
when relieved of the apprehension with 
which they have been wrongfully inspired. 

Wholesome Mental Occupation Important 

The sexual neurasthenic needs first of all 
a thorough mental purging. This can be ac¬ 
complished only by wholesome mental occu¬ 
pation. It is no use to exhort the patient to 
keep his mind off sexual subjects. The 
more he tries to do this, the more impossible 
it becomes. The enemy must be routed by a 
flank movement. The attention must be 
diverted into other and wholesome channels, 
and both mind and body must be fully occu¬ 
pied by wholesome work of some sort. 

Drugs of all sorts must be abandoned. 
Continence of mind and body must be an ab- 


150 


NEURASTHENIA 


solute rule. The advice given young men, 
and even young women also, by certain 
physicians who recommend immorality as a 
remedy is most pernicious, and wholly un¬ 
warranted by any fact or principle recog¬ 
nized among reputable and scientific medical 
men. 

The Simple Life Must be Religiously Lived 

The sexual neurasthenic, like the sufferer 
from chronic fatigue, must live the simple 
life most religiously. He must turn away 
from every vicious practice and must set his 
face resolutely toward the highest ideals of 
Christian manhood. He needs, above all 
others, the help afforded by a deeply re¬ 
ligious life. 

The sexual neurasthenic, too, of all others, 
needs the aid of a wise and an experienced 
physician. In general, the methods outlined 
in preceding and following chapters will be 
found of great service. In some cases, local 
treatment which can be properly applied 
only by a skilled specialist is essential to 
complete recovery. 


Christian Science, Emmanuel 
Movement, Hypnotism 

The writer’s views in relation to Chris¬ 
tian Science together with other similar 
movements and hypnotism, are set forth in 
the following extracts from lectures on the 
subject, delivered at different times before 
the patients of the Battle Creek Sanitar¬ 
ium : 

Christian Science a Misnomer—Neither 
Scientific nor Christian 

No Christian theologian would admit that 
the theory or the so-called philosophy of 
Christian Science is in harmony with the 
recognized doctrines of Christianity; and 
certainly no scientist for a moment would ad¬ 
mit that the so-called Christian Science or 
philosophy is worthy of the dignity attached 
to the word science. Indeed, from a logical . 
standpoint, the teachings of Christian Science 
are a veritable quagmire of irrational 


151 


152 


NEURASTHENIA 


thought. Notwithstanding, it cannot be said 
that there is nothing good in Christian 
Science, yet I do assert that what is good in 
it is not new, and what is new is not 
good. Christian Science is neither scien¬ 
tific nor Christian. It is not scientific because 
it seeks to destroy the very foundations of 
science. It declares that the very things 
with which science deals, things which we 
feel, taste, touch, smell, do not exist; that 
material objects have no existence. Now 
this is not a new idea. Bishop Berkeley 
brought forward this idea long years ago. 

He declared that matter was but an idea— 

* 

a mental picture. Lord Byron, when once 
asked what he thought of the theory, re¬ 
plied, “When Bishop Berkeley said, ‘There 
is no matter,’ ’twas no matter what he said.” 

One of the Inconsistencies of Christian 

Science 

Mrs. Eddy placed herself in the same 
situation. If the theory is true, then she her¬ 
self was no matter, neither is her book. The 
millions of dollars she made out of the 
sale of her books, which cost a few cents a 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


153 


copy and sell for five dollars, are also no 
matter. And it seems very strange that she 
and her trustees should have been so dis¬ 
turbed at the attempt upon the part of some 
of her relatives to get possession of some of 
Mrs. Eddy’s immaterial wealth. 

In reading the writings of Mrs. Eddy one 
finds no real system of philosophy, no logical 
relation of ideas. The teaching is a hodge¬ 
podge. Some one has called it a “junk shop 
of effete fancies.” To become convinced of 
this it is only necessary to read early edi¬ 
tions of her books. The works are their own 
best refutation. 

The False Basis of Christian Science 

The foundation stone on which she bases 
her “science” is this: God is good; God 
created all things and pronounced all things 
good; a good God cannot create an evil 
thing. Disease, pain, sin, crime are evil 
things—therefore they do not exist. Now 
that is simply sophistry. It may look 
straight enough, but it is not sound reason¬ 
ing. 


154 


NEURASTHENIA 


Bad Logic 

In the first place pain is not a thing—dis¬ 
ease is not a thing, using the word in the 
sense in which we say: ‘‘God created all 
things.” God created all objects, but he did 
not create all relations or all conditions of 
all objects. God created m^n, but not man’s 
actions. If a man stubs his toe and falls 
down, God does not create the fall. God 
created all original objects, but man and 
other intelligent creatures are also cre¬ 
ators. “God made the country; man 
made the town.” God makes trees; man 
makes houses. The fundamental error of 
Christian Science rests on this confusing use 
of the word “things.” The fundamental 
proposition is false. Disease, distress, sin— 
these come from the establishment of wrong 
relations of things. These are man-created. 
Mrs. Eddy says disease and pain are simply 
“morbid ideas.” It would be rather difficult 
to convince a man suffering from tooth¬ 
ache that he had simply a “morbid idea.” 
Mrs. Eddy insists not only that there is no 
such thing as toothache, but that there can- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


155 


not be such a thing as toothache, since there 
is no tooth to ache. 

Matter Not Actual, Says Mrs. Eddy 

Here are a few items of Mrs. Eddy's so- 
called philosophy, copied from her books. 
In describing the ‘‘inspiration" or revelation 
of Christian Science as she claims it came to 
her, she says: “The great facts of omnipo¬ 
tence and omnipresence, of spirit possessing 
all power and filling all space, these facts 
contradicted forever to my understanding 
the notion that matter can be actual. These 
facts also revealed to me primeval existence 
and the radiant realities of good; and there 
was present to me, as never before, the aw¬ 
ful unreality of evil.” 

Again: “By mind alone I have prevented 
disease, preserved and restored health, 
healed chronic as well as acute ailments in 
their severest forms, elongated and short¬ 
ened limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, restored 
decaying bones to healthy conditions, 
brought back the lost substance of the lungs 
and caused them to resume their proper 
functions.” 


156 


NEURASTHENIA 


Disease Non-existent, Says Christian Science 

“It is no less than mental quackery to 
make disease a reality, hold it as something 
seen and felt, and then to attempt to work 
its cure through the Mind. It is no less 
erroneous to believe the real existence of a 
tumor, a cancer, or decayed lungs. 

“It is morally wrong to examine the body 
in order to ascertain if we are in health; be¬ 
cause this is to take the government of man 
out of the hands of God. 

“Because Man is the reflection of his 
Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, 
maturity or decay. These illusions are of 
human origin, not Divine.” 

“One disease is no more unreal than an¬ 
other. All disease is the result of hallucina¬ 
tion and can carry its ill effects no further 
than mortal mind maps out. Facts are 
stubborn things. Christian Science finds the 
decided type of acute disease, however 
severe, quite as ready to yield as the less 
distinct type and chronic form of disease. It 
handles the most malignant contagion with 
perfect assurance.” 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


157 


“The uselessness of drugs, the emptiness 
of knowledge, the nothingness of matter and 
its imaginary laws, are apparent as we rise 
from the rubbish of belief to the acquisition 
and demonstration of spiritual understand¬ 
ing.” 

“Christian Science is sunlight to the body. 
It invigorates and purifies. It acts as an al¬ 
terative, neutralizing error with Truth. It 
changes the secretions, expels humors, dis¬ 
solves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores 
carious bones to soundness.” 

“Nothing but mortal belief gives colds and 
coughs, or circulates contagion.” 

“You say a boil is painful; but that is im¬ 
possible, for matter without mind is not pain¬ 
ful. The boil simply manifests your belief 
in pain, inflammation and swelling; and you 
call this belief a boil.” 

“The sick are never really healed by 
drugs, hygiene or any material method. 
These merely evade the question. They are 
soothing syrups to put children to sleep, 
satisfy mortal belief and lull its fears.” 

“Is civilization but a higher state of idola- 


158 


NEURASTHENIA 


try, that man, in the nineteenth century, 
should bow down to a flesh brush, to flannels 
and baths, to diet, exercise and air? Nothing 
is able to do for him what he is able to do 
for himself with Omnipotent aid.” 

If the above propositions, or rather, as¬ 
sertions, are true, then thirst is never 
quenched by drinking w r ater, nor hunger 
satisfied by taking food; dirt is never re¬ 
moved by soap. And yet “Christian Scien¬ 
tists” eat, drink, and make use of soap (a 
drug) as do other people. Before the more 
intelligent and level-headed portion of the 
community will ever be converted to “Chris¬ 
tian Science,” it will be necessary for the de¬ 
votees of this cult to demonstrate their in¬ 
dependence of material things, by dispensing 
with food, drink, soap, flannels, baths and 
air. 

Christian Science Really Opposed to 

Christianity 

Christian Science is not only opposed to all 
real science, but it is diametrically opposed 
to Christianity. “Man is incapable of sin 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


159 


and death,” says Mrs. Eddy. Why, then, is 
this so-called philosophy called Christian? 
What is the province of Christianity unless 
to save from sin and death? If a man is 
incapable of sinning or of death, if there is 
no sin or death, then what need of Chris¬ 
tianity? Christian Science leaves no place 
for Christianity. 

Now, there are some things in Christian 
Science that are good. The philosophy is 
bad—absurd, unbelievable, incredible to the 
intelligent individual; but it is true that thou¬ 
sands have found relief, comfort, and even 
health in it. There is unquestionably some¬ 
thing in it that is practically good. The 
good element in Christian Science is faith. 
The man who buys a gold brick is happy so 
long as he thinks he has the real thing and 
just as happy as though he were the posses¬ 
sor of a lot of gold. So the believer in 
Christian Science may be helped, not by 
Christian Science, but by his own faith. 

When Christ healed the woman who came 
to him he said: “Thy faith hath made thee 
whole.” It is a fact that man/ sick people 


160 


NEURASTHENIA 


are merely haunted by hobgoblins, ghosts of 
maladies which they do not have. If a 
Christian Science “healer” is called in such a 
case, he may exorcise the hobgoblin and a 
cure is effected. If Christian Science would 
only be more careful in its selection of cases 
it would have a larger number of successful 
“cures.” 

THE EMMANUEL MOVEMENT 

Christian Science has at last a rival 
which threatens to become a powerful com¬ 
petitor. The Christian Scientists have had 
things pretty much their own way. Only 
now and then has a Dowie or a Paul Castor 
or some other professed “healer” under¬ 
taken to dispute the field with the followers 
of Mrs. Eddy. 

A few years ago the rector of an Episcopal 
Church in Mrs. Eddy’s own town began a 
work which made considerable headway 
under the name of the “Emmanuel Church 

Movement.” 

* 

From the standpoint of an onlooker there 
seem to be many points of similarity between 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


161 


Eddyism and this new movement within the 
ranks of the church: 

1. Mrs. Eddy teaches that disease exists 
only as a morbid idea. 

The Emmanuel Movement regards dis¬ 
ease as the result of morbid mental states, 
at least so far as functional disease is con¬ 
cerned, and this really is tantamount to say¬ 
ing all forms of disease, for organic disease 
begins with functional derangement. 

2. Mrs. Eddy teaches that disease may 
be cured by mental methods applied to the 
patient by one who has been instructed. 

Doctor Worcester and his colleagues 
teach that disease may be cured by “psychic 
suggestion,” applied by specially qualified 
persons. 

3. Mrs. Eddy claims for herself and her 
healers a personal power or authority to 
control the vital processes of other persons, 
so making possible the cure of disease by 
them. 

Says the Emmanuel healer to the patient, 
“I can cure you absolutely.” 

The Emmanuel Movement differs from 


162 


NEURASTHENIA 


Eddyism in that it claims to be strictly in 
harmony with modern science, while Mrs. 
Eddy utterly repudiates all that is commonly 
recognized as science. In operation and ef¬ 
fect, however, there is little difference be¬ 
tween the two. 

Doctor Worcester operates through “sug¬ 
gestion’' and “hypnotism,” methods long in 
use by certain specialists and by numerous 
charlatans. 

The history of hypnotism, formerly called 
mesmerism, dates from Mesmer, a charla¬ 
tan whose sensational cures were the won¬ 
der of Paris more than a century ago. 
Benjamin Franklin was living at the time in 
the French capital. The great statesman- 
philosopher w r as a member of a committee 
appointed by the French Academy to investi¬ 
gate the new method of exorcising disease. 
Mesmer claimed the cures to be wrought by 
means of a magnet in a tub with which he 
connected his patients by means of handles. 
Franklin replaced the magnet by a wooden 
imitation and the “cures” continued as be¬ 
fore. Whereupon Mesmer, nothing daunted, 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


163 


announced the discovery that the healing 
power lay in himself. This was the genesis 
of animal magnetism. 

Mesmer has had a host of successors in 
and out of the profession, w T ho have claimed 
special power over disease, and the ability to 
control by the action of their own minds the 
operation of other minds and bodies through 
occult means. 

Modern psychologic science has explained 
the curious phenomena of mesmerism and 
named it hypnotism. The explanation is 
this: By various means an individual may be 
brought into a state of mental vacuity or ab¬ 
straction. While in this condition, the so- 
called hypnotic state, ideas communicated to 
the subject’s mind may become the control¬ 
ling factors in his conduct, and may even 
temporarily influence his bodily functions. 
“Suggestion” is the term used to designate 
the presentation of ideas to the mind of the 
subject without the hypnotic state, either dur¬ 
ing the ordinary waking condition or during 
natural sleep. 


164 


NEURASTHENIA 


Hypnotism Found Wanting 

Hypnotism has been carefully studied 
by the most eminent neurologists, and has 
been found wanting. Professor Charcot, the 
great French neurologist, after years of in¬ 
vestigation and constant experiment, dis¬ 
carded it as a means for general application. 
The able editor of the British Medical 
Journal, perhaps the most authoritative and 
influential of all medical journals, some years 
ago made an exhaustive inquiry into the 
question of hypnotism, the result of which 
was the publication of a most decided and 
positive condemnation of this psychic 
method as a curative means. The baneful 
influence of hypnotism upon the mind of the 
hypnotized, and the failure of the method to 
accomplish permanent good, were clearly 
pointed out. 

There have been, and still are, schools of 
hypnotism and clinics where hypnotism is the 
chief method of treatment, but with the lapse 
of time the confidence of the medical profes¬ 
sion in this psychic method has, instead of 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


165 


increasing, notably diminished, until at pres¬ 
ent a practitioner who resorts to hypnotism 
as his general mode of practice, or as a 
specialty, is commonly looked upon with 
suspicion. 

The Hypnotist is a Deceiver 

And there is good reason for this mis¬ 
trust. The hypnotist is necessarily a de¬ 
ceiver. The whole success of his art depends 
upon the belief of the patient that the 
hypnotist possesses an occult power by which 
he can influence the mind or body of the 
subject, or both. This is a false belief. It 
has not the slightest foundation in fact; yet 
unless the subject has full confidence in the 
supposed powers of the hypnotist, no im¬ 
pression can be made. 

Again, the hypnotist impresses the subject 
by making most positive statements without 
being at all certain that he is telling the 
truth. For example, in the case of a chronic 
inebriate the following words were pro¬ 
nounced to the subject by an Emmanuel 
Church healer: “You are going to sleep. You 


166 


NEURASTHENIA 


are sinking deeper into sleep. No noises will 
disturb you. You will drop off to sleep. You 
are asleep (these words being repeated 
many times, the patient actually fell asleep). 
I told you before you were not to drink any 
more. I told you that you could not yield 
again to the drink habit. You cannot drink 
any more.” 

Now it was impossible to say with truth, 
“You are going to sleep,” or, “You cannot 
drink any more.” It was all supposition, the 
untruth of which the subject might discover. 
The hypnotist is constantly making state¬ 
ments of this kind, well knowing that in 
many instances his statements will prove ab¬ 
solutely false. He says to the victim of in¬ 
somnia, “You will sleep. Yes, you are get¬ 
ting sleepy now. You are dropping off to 
sleep! There, you are asleep.” If the ex¬ 
periment succeeds, the statement proves 
true, but it is a falsehood when it fails. So 
far as the hypnotist is concerned, such a 
statement is really untrue when made. It is 
a presumption made for the purpose of im¬ 
pressing the patient. If the subject believes 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


167 


it, the assertion is verified in fact; if he 
doubts, it proves false. 

So the hypnotist is a professional deceiver. 
When he says to the patient in the most posi¬ 
tive manner, “You are going to sleep,” he is 
not at all certain himself that the patient will 
sleep. His effort is purely experimental. 

Effects upon the Mind Injurious 

But there are other than moral objections 
to hypnotism, as was well pointed out by the 
eminent Doctor Hart, of the British Med¬ 
ical Journal. The effect of the hypnotic 
state upon the subject is not wholesome. 
The false belief upon which the success of 
the art depends, exercises an unwholesome ef¬ 
fect upon his mind. He feels that a spell 
has been cast over him. He believes that 
another mind and will than his own have 
control of him. His selfhood is weakened. 

Hypnotists Cannot Hypnotize Hypnotists 

Studying hypnotism more than twenty-five 
years ago in the clinic of the famous Pro¬ 
fessor Charcot, at the Salpetriere, Paris, I 


168 


NEURASTHENIA 


was impressed particularly by the weak and 
foolish expression commonly seen upon the 
faces of subjects after coming out from the 
hypnotic state. Doctor Hart and many other 
authorities assert that the hypnotic state is 
a diseased condition, a morbid state which 
is made worse by repetition. That it is a 
condition impossible to a healthy and fully 
informed mind is not to be doubted for a 
moment. Conceive, if possible, of one pro¬ 
fessional hypnotist hypnotizing another. 
They would be like the augurs of ancient 
times who dared not look one another in the 
face, in public, for fear of laughing. 

Now there recently appeared in the public 
prints the following: 

“The Emmanuel Clinic conducted by Rev. 
Dr. Frederick Campbell in Brooklyn, New 
York, has been given up, Doctor Campbell 
having resigned his pastorate on account of 
impaired health.” Consistency would have 
added, “and gone to Boston to place himself 
under hypnotic treatment at the Emmanuel 
Church;” but no such announcement was 
made. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


169 


My first impression of the Emmanuel 
Church Movement was that it was es¬ 
sentially a religious movement. It com- 
maned my entire sympathy and support. 
But later the fact came to light that it was 
hypnotism in a new dress, or in a new en¬ 
vironment. Instead of the hospital, the 
church; instead of the physician’s office, the 
pastor’s study; instead of a physician, a 
preacher; instead of a man armed with a 
knowledge of all that modern science has 
developed of natural physiologic means of 
cure and prophylaxis through natural agents 
and natural habits, a hypnotist with the de¬ 
ceptive air of occultism, the mysterious pose, 
the bald deception, the false belief on the 
part of the patient, the voluntary surrender 
of a weak will to a stronger. 

Wherein is Hypnotism Different from 

Mesmerism? 

It is impossible to suppress the query: Is 
hypnotism under the name of the Emmanuel 
Church Movement essentially different from 
the hypnotism of Mesmer and Charcot? 


170 


NEURASTHENIA 


Does hypnotism in a church differ from 
hypnotism in a hospital? Is deception prac¬ 
ticed by a clergyman less sinful than decep¬ 
tion by an ordinary mortal? Is a hypnotic 
seance begun with a hymn and a prayer, and 
closed with the doxology, less objectionable 
than a hypnotic seance in a doctor’s office? 
Admitting that the medical profession has 
neglected the psychic side of therapeutics, is 
it likely that any great good is to be accomp¬ 
lished by the clergy through the use of 
means which the medical profession has 
tested for half a century and found want¬ 
ing? That is to say, is hypnotism less repre¬ 
hensible and unwholesome because its horns 
and hoofs are concealed by an ecclesiastic 
cloak and halo? 

Finally, is the cause of religion likely to 
be in any way benefited through the substi¬ 
tution by its ministers of the deceptions and 
falsehoods of hypnotism and psychologic 
juggling for the simple faith of the gospel? 
And has the hypnotist or the psychologist 
any better means of “suggestion” than the 
old-fashioned method which through all the 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


171 


centuries has worked and is still working 
wonders, when it is not relegated to the rear 
as out-of-date and unscientific—simple, 
honest prayer? 

The New Confessional 

Incidentally another phase of the Em¬ 
manuel Church Movement has come to light. 
Says one warm advocate of the Movement, 
“Sufferers invariably want some one to 
whom they can unburden their hearts. 
There is where the confessional of the Ro¬ 
man Catholic Church has done a world of 
good.” 

This may be true, but is there no one save 
a Catholic priest or an Episcopal priest, or 
a hypnotist, to whom a penitent sinner can 
confess his sins, and from whom he may ex¬ 
pect comfort and sympathy adapted to his 
needs? Has the religious world reached the 
point where another Martin Luther is 
needed to preach the gospel of the Father¬ 
hood of God, the Brotherhood of Christ, 
and the efficacy of Christian faith? What¬ 
ever good there may be in hypnotism, there 
is only one Master Mind that can be trusted. 


172 


NEURASTHENIA 


To be divinely inspired is the only hypnotism 
which is safe. Confession is good, but there 
is only one Ear which can be safely trusted 
with all the heart’s secrets. Sympathy is 
good, but only one Great Heart can offer 
just the measure and the kind of sympathy 
which a sorrow-laden soul needs to lighten 
its load. Friendly sympathy is certainly 
helpful, but professional sympathy is a cheap 
substitute, well calculated to encourage a 
class of morbid neurasthenics who find their 
greatest delight in the rehearsal of their mis¬ 
eries. 

Our judgment may be wrong, but it 
really looks as though the Emmanuel 
Church Movement is a religio-scientific sub¬ 
stitute for both scientific medicine and the 
good, old-fashioned Bible religion, a New 
Thought, religio-medico-sociological move¬ 
ment, a more or less orthodox rival of 
Christian Science, and with a foundation not 
much better. 

The Emmanuel Movement Misses the Mark 

When a huntsman sets out to kill, he first 
of all finds his game, then takes sure aim and 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


173 


fires. He does not shoot at the wolf’s track, 
nor at the heap of bones where it made its 
last meal, nor yet at its bark. He sends the 
bullet to the heart or brain. He shoots, not 
to scare the brute, but to kill. 

A vital fault with the Emmanuel Move¬ 
ment in dealing with the sick is the fact that 
it aims at the bark or the bite of the body’s 
assailant instead of the attacking element it¬ 
self. Nervousness, depression, headaches 
and hypochondria are not entities, nor 
causes. They are effects. With these mental 
effects there are always associated many 
purely physical signs of vital depression and 
bodily disorder. They are only the mental 
expression of a state which is universal in 
the body. 

A coated tongue, a bad breath, a dingy 
skin, malodorous perspiration, constipation, 
loss of appetite, lack of energy and endur¬ 
ance; highly colored urine, the presence of 
putrefactive poisons in the urine, foul smell¬ 
ing stools alive with putrefactive and poison¬ 
forming germs—these, and a score of other 
symptoms, are just as much a part of the 


174 


NEURASTHENIA 


complete picture of hypochondria as is the 
depressed mental state. The man whose 
blood is loaded with the products of putre¬ 
faction is intoxicated just as really as though 
he had swallowed alcohol or any other 
brain-obfuscating drug. Whether the poison 
is compounded in a chemist’s laboratory, or 
is generated in his own colon is not a mat¬ 
ter of any moment, except that germ poisons 
are generally far more potent and deadly 
than the most powerful drugs. 

To imagine that these poisons can be cast 
out by suggestion, or that the germs which 
produce them can be destroyed by hypnotic 
passes, even when administered with re¬ 
ligious fervor and in a church or a pastor’s 
study, is to hark back to the time when all 
maladies were demons, and remedies con¬ 
sisted of incense, cabalistic formula?, 
amulets and relics of saints. 

In the case of insomnia, for example, the 
wakefulness is usually due to one of two 
causes: too much blood in the brain, or the 
presence of irritating poisons in the blood. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


175 


Both conditions may be present, and gener¬ 
ally are. 

The excess of blood is due to contracted 
blood-vessels in some other part, usually the 
extremities—which are often cold—and 
especially the skin, as shown by pallor or a 
dingy or sallow hue. 

The sleep-hindering poisons are the result 
of imperfect action of the poison-destroying, 
or poison-eliminating, organs of the body. 
The usual source is putrefaction of undi¬ 
gested foodstuffs in the intestine, especially 
remnants of flesh-foods; and constipation, 
which retains the fecal matters and thus 
leads to the absorption of putrefaction 
products. Massage, the wet sheet pack, or 
a warm bath will fill the skin with blood, and 
thus relieve the congested brain. A change 
of diet and measures to secure proper bowel 
action will remove the brain-irritating 
poisons from the blood. 

These measures are succeeding in hun¬ 
dreds of cases daily in sanitariums and hos¬ 
pitals for the insane, where victims of in¬ 
somnia are numerously represented. 


176 


NEURASTHENIA 


But how may the skin vessels be relaxed, 
or the blood-poisons and colon germs be des¬ 
troyed, by putting the patient in an easy 
chair and saying to him, according to Doctor 
Worcester's formula: “You are going to 
sleep; you are sinking deeper into sleep. No 
noises will disturb you. You will drop off 
into sleep. You are asleep”? 

There are, of course, certain persons really 
ill who can be w T heedled into the idea that 
they are well when they are not; but the de¬ 
lusion will in time disappear, and the old 
condition will assert itself because the origi¬ 
nating cause has not been reached and eradi¬ 
cated. 

Physical Remedies Needed for Physical Ills 

But physical maladies must have physical 
remedies. A patient whose insomnia is due 
to autointoxication arising from constipation 
must be relieved of the constipation before 
permanent improvement can be secured, no 
matter how much temporary relief may be 
secured by suggestion or hypnotism. 

We have no disposition to ridicule the 
Emmanuel Movement, nor to question the 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


177 


motives or purposes of its able promoters; 
but wc feel compelled to recognize the fact 
that the work is not thoroughgoing. We 
admit that there are exceptional cases in 
which insomnia, hypochondria, and other 
nervous diseases may be due to purely 
psychic causes, and hence may be cured by 
psychic remedies, but these cases are cer¬ 
tainly very rare. 

Functional nervous disorders in general 
are not due to bad mental states, but to bad 
habits. The use of tobacco and of tea and 
coffee, the flesh-eating habit, hasty eating, 
sedentary life and neglect of the bowels, are 
responsible for a thousand cases of nervous 
diseases where pessimism is responsible for 
one. Indeed, most of the pessimism is due 
to a high-protein diet, or may be traced to 
others of the causes named as productive of 
intestinal toxemia with its innumerable 
bacteria and nerve- and brain-disturbing 
toxins. 

There are many most admirable features 
in the Emmanuel Movement. Its kindly 
philanthropic aims, its brotherly spirit, its 


178 


NEURASTHENIA 


good cheer and helpfulness in so many be¬ 
neficent ways, are most commendable; but 
it is to be hoped that the hypnotic element 
may be eliminated, and the principles of ra¬ 
tional living added. 

Hypnotism is not a competent substitute 
for Christian faith, and has about as much 
affinity for good religion as oil has for 
water. The two will not mix. 

Twenty years ago hypnotism was most en¬ 
thusiastically commended by a large number 
of eminent neurologists, but this method has 
certainly failed to make good and is now 
universally condemned. There are several 
reasons for this. 

Neurasthenics Hypnotizable Only When 

Hysterical 

I. Neurasthenics, when not hysterical, 
are not hypnotizable. Healthy persons 
cannot be hypnotized, at least only to a 
slight degree, and then only in very rare 
cases. To be a good hypnotic subject, one 
must be mentally diseased to such an extent 
that his personality is profoundly changed, 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


179 


a condition which is only found in pro¬ 
nounced hysteria. 

Often Makes Patients Worse 

2. Another objection to the employing of 
hypnotism in neurasthenia is that it some¬ 
times makes the patient very much worse 
rather than better. A person who can be 
hypnotized has a weak will. Hypnotiza- 
tion weakens the will of the subject more 
and more, the more frequently it is em¬ 
ployed. 

Does Not Reach the Root of the Disease 

3. A third and really fundamental ob¬ 
jection to hypnotism is that, with rare ex¬ 
ceptions, it does not reach the actual root 
of the disease. This is equally true of 
Christian Science and all other forms of 
mental therapeutics or psychotherapy. 

Inspiring Confidence by Means of False 

Claims 

4. A final and sufficient objection is the 
fact that the successful practice of hypnotism 
requires that the patient should be made to 


180 


NEURASTHENIA 


believe what is not true. The hypnotizer 
must inspire confidence by false claims of 
power over the subject’s mind and will. 
Hypnotism is impossible without fraud and 
pretense. 

THE FREUD METHOD 

In very recent years much discussion in 
medical circles has been aroused by the 
theories and methods proposed by Freud, 
of Germany. 

Freud believes that all cases of neuras¬ 
thenia are the outgrowth of some disturb¬ 
ance of the sexual life. He holds that most 
of these disturbances occur in childhood and 
may occur even in infancy. Cases of neur¬ 
asthenia in which no cause of this sort is dis¬ 
coverable are termed by Freud, “anxiety- 
neuroses.” 

The “Unconscious” 

Freud holds that in cases of neurasthenia 
there is a mental state which he terms “the 
unconscious,” in which are held outside the 
realm of consciousness the injurious impres¬ 
sions or ideas which have been combated, and 
so repressed and forced below the level of 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


181 


consciousness. The morbid manifestations 
of neurasthenia and hysteria he believes to be 
the result of the efforts of these repressed 
ideas and impulses to find expression. Freud 
holds that the only relief for this condition 
is to be found in the discovery and expres¬ 
sion of these repressed ideas. 

Freud’s mode of treatment, which is 
strictly psychic, consists in a careful analysis 
of the patient’s mental states, both waking 
and w T hen asleep. He has developed a 
theory of dreams through which he seeks 
to find by the study of the dreams of neuras¬ 
thenic or hysterical persons the real be¬ 
ginnings of the departure from the normal 
condition. The cure consists in the discovery 
of this occult cause, by means of which it is 
brought into the field of consciousness and so 
rendered powerless for mischief. Experi¬ 
ence has shown that these morbid and re¬ 
pressed ideas and impulses are potent for 
evil only while retained in the so-called “un¬ 
conscious” mind. 

Freud has acquired quite a following 
among neurologists who have studied his 


182 


NEURASTHENIA 


works, and the application of his methods 
has been apparently attended with some de¬ 
gree of success in obstinate cases of neuras¬ 
thenia that have resisted all other methods. 
The methods are exceedingly tedious, how¬ 
ever, requiring from six months to three 
years to secure results, during which time the 
patient must remain constantly under close 
observation by a highly trained specialist. 
In the writer’s opinion this method is funda¬ 
mentally deficient in the fact that it makes 
the cause of neurasthenia purely and strictly 
psychic, and ignores the tremendous influence 
of various morbid states, particularly auto¬ 
intoxication or intestinal toxemia. In gen¬ 
eral the theories of Freud seem to be fine¬ 
spun, and certainly the success of his method 
does not compare with that attained by a 
thorough-going application of the physio¬ 
logic method, the outlines of which are 
presented in this w T ork, and the application 
of which in a thoroughgoing way often se¬ 
cures most gratifying results in a wonderfully 
short time. 


Worry—How It Kills and 
How to Cure 


Worry, like hate, anger, envy and all 
other depressing emotions, is a poison. It 
is a short circuit which burns out the mental 
batteries and destroys the power for useful 
activity. It is of little use, however, to tell 
the neurasthenic not to worry. He suffers 
from worry just as he suffers from head¬ 
ache, cold hands and feet, and other ailments. 
The neurasthenic worries, not because he 
wishes to, but because his mind operates in 
this disordered fashion in spite of his desire 
to the contrary. He can no more help 
worrying by voluntary effort than he can 
stop the smarting of a burn or the itching of 
a mosquito bite by a mental effort. Neverthe¬ 
less, the patient can do much to help him¬ 
self out of the worry habit, by an effort to 
cultivate an optimistic view of life in gen¬ 
eral, and in each particular situation that 
presents itself. And by intense mental occu¬ 
pation one may exclude worry just as one 


183 


184 


NEURASTHENIA 


may become so completely absorbed in men¬ 
tal or physical effort as to become totally 
oblivious to many physical discomforts. 

First of all it is important to understand 
the nature and deep-lying causes of this 
malady, for worry is not simply a habit; it 
is a real disease. It is not merely the sur¬ 
render of the will to morbid fancies or 
imaginary causes of anxiety; it is an actual 
disease, a real physical state, as much as in¬ 
digestion, rheumatism, or any other bodily 
disease. 

Within the last few years the emotions 
and their influence upon the body have been 
made the subject of laboratory study, and 
numerous highly interesting, important, and 
practical facts have been developed by these 
critical observations upon human beings and 
animals. It is true that the question, “What 
is an emotion?" still remains unsolved, as 
does the greater and nobler question, “What 
is the mind?’’ But the influence of the va¬ 
rious emotions upon the body are now fairly 
well understood, and can be described in 
definite physiologic terms. 


WORRY 


185 


The emotions are perhaps among the 
most powerful of all the influences which af¬ 
fect the body, and the specific effects of the 
various emotional states present as definite, 
clearly-defined characteristics as do the ef¬ 
fects produced by heat, cold, electricity, and 
other physical agents, or such bodily states 
as hunger, thirst, and fatigue. 

Joy, sorrow, anger and fear, as well as 
other emotional states, are powerful forces 
w T hich may exalt or depress bodily functions 
as quickly and as powerfully as the most po¬ 
tent drugs or the most active physical agents. 
Prof. C. Lange, a Danish writer, in a some¬ 
what voluminous work presents a critical 
study of the several emotions, in w r hich 
he show T s that each is associated with definite 
physical states, and clearly demonstrates 
that an emotion is a bodily state, and not 
simply a mental or spiritual experience. 
Numerous other psychologists and physi¬ 
ologists working in the same field have ar¬ 
rived at essentially the same conclusion, 
especially in recent years. 

As a result of these labors it is now 


186 


NEURASTHENIA 


known, for example, that joyful emotions 
heighten the activity of all the bodily func¬ 
tions. Under the influence of joy the small 
arteries and capillaries dilate, and every 
organ receives an increased and more active 
blood supply. Through the influence of joy 
upon the muscular system there is not only 
an increased disposition to activity, but an 
increased capacity for effort and endurance. 
The heart beats stronger, the brain thinks 
clearer, breathing is deeper, digestion more 
active, the eyes brighten, the cheeks glow 
with health, the whole body rejoices and 
prospers under the influence of a peaceful, 
contented, and joyous mental state. 

Cannon, in his experiments on digestion in 
the cat, noted that so long as the animal 
was in a happy and contented mood, as 
shown by purring, digestion proceeded reg¬ 
ularly and actively. Under the x-ray the 
stomach could be seen to contract on the 
food, mixing and sorting it, passing on the 
liquid portion into the intestine. When the 
purring ceased from annoyance, digestion 
ceased. 


WORRY 


187 


Modern scientific research has demon¬ 
strated the physiologic soundness of the 
ancient proverb, “A merry heart doeth good 
like a medicine.” 

Sorrow produces a bodily condition quite 
the opposite of that produced by joy. Under 
the influence of sadness, all the bodily func¬ 
tions are depressed. The muscular system 
is relaxed and weakened. The sorrowful 
individual has the appearance of one who is 
exhausted or fatigued. The frequent sigh 
is simply Nature’s effort to make up by a 
deep breath the loss of oxygen which results 
from the decreased activity of the chest. 
There is a physiologic basis for the current 
expression, “Weighed down with sorrow.” 

The effect of sorrow upon the internal 
organs is most profound. The external 
blood-vessels are contracted, causing pallor 
or sometimes a livid appearance due to di¬ 
minished circulation through the skin, the 
hands and feet are often cold, secretions are 
diminished, in consequence of which the 
mouth is dry. As a result of the dryness, 
bacteria grow in the mouth, the tongue be- 


188 


NEURASTHENIA 


comes coated, and bitter substances are pro¬ 
duced which may be the reason that we 
speak of sorrow as “bitter.” 

The starving, sorrowful mother becomes 
unable to furnish food for her nursing babe. 
The springs of life seem to be dried up, the 
sensibilities are chilled, benumbed, the men¬ 
tal faculties dulled—the whole body withers 
under the baneful influence of chronic grief. 
Doctor Allbut, an eminent English author¬ 
ity, offers proof that prolonged sorrow may 
even lead to organic changes such as atrophy 
of the kidneys, which he observed in a num¬ 
ber of cases. 

Fear, like sorrow, produces a weakening, 
sometimes a complete paralysis of the 
muscles. There is at the same time a con¬ 
traction of the blood-vessels, which gives 
rise to pallor. The influence of fear upon 
the involuntary muscles is clearly shown in 
the increase of the heart beat, and the for¬ 
mation of goose pimples, sometimes accom¬ 
panied by a sensation of chill. The pupils 
of the eye dilate, through the powerful im¬ 
pression made upon the sympathetic nerves. 


WORRY 


189 


Through the stimulation of the same set of 
nerves, the bowels and bladder sometimes 
evacuate their contents. Extreme terror has 
sometimes produced such powerful impres¬ 
sions upon the body as to cause paralysis, in¬ 
sanity, or even death. The physical results, 
while usually temporary, sometimes persist 
for months, or may even become permanent. 

Worry is akin to fear. It is, in fact, a 
sort of chronic fear. In its most intense 
forms, worry almost reaches the proportions 
of actual terror. A man who worries over 
his task, is almost defeated in advance. To 
anticipate failure is to invite it through the 
medium of suggestion. Worry, like other de¬ 
pressing emotions, while doubtless depend¬ 
ent upon physical states, reacts upon the 
body in the most pernicious way, forming a 
vicious circle. While worry is generally re¬ 
garded as a depressed mental state, it is, 
nevertheless, in actual fact, a state of in¬ 
creased activity. This fact leads to the most 
disastrous consequences. The brain exhausts 
its stores of energy through ineffective men¬ 
tal and nervous action. 


190 


NEURASTHENIA 


During sleep and rest, brain and nerve 
energy are stored. A microscopic examina¬ 
tion of the brain and nerve cells of animals, 
if made in the rested state, shows the cells 
to be plump and well packed with minute 
granules, each of which is a little packet of 
energy, which may be compared to a percus¬ 
sion cap or gun cartridge. After prolonged 
and exhausting exertion, the nerve cells are 
found to be shrunken and pale, containing 
few energy granules. 

The store of nervous and mental energy 
may be compared to the miller’s pond. The 
full pond means a full store of power to 
propel the water-wheel, which in turn runs 
the mill. Worry is like a leak in the mill 
dam, which drains the pond, so that the 
water-head is low, the wheel turns feebly, 
and the mill grinds slowly or not at all. 
Worry adds to the necessary energy expendi¬ 
ture involved in work an additional energy 
loss which is absolutely unproductive. 

But the influence of worry upon the body 
is not confined to its effect upon the mental 
processes. Its influence upon the great 


WORRY 


191 


pneumogastric nerve and the sympathetic, as 
well as in other ways, produces most pro¬ 
foundly pernicious effects. Through the in¬ 
tercommunication of the vagus or sympa¬ 
thetic, and the vasomotor nerves, the action 
of the organic functions is maintained and 
regulated. It is through the influence of 
these nerves that the action of the heart, 
lungs, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidneys, 
bowels, and other vital organs, is maintained 
and constantly regulated to suit varying con¬ 
ditions of environment and activity. For 
example, the sympathetic nerve stimulates 
the heart to action. The vagus nerve ex¬ 
ercises a controlling or regulating influence 
by which the heart’s action is made more 
vigorous and effective. Without the influ¬ 
ence of the vagus the heart runs away so to 
speak, and soon exhausts itself. 

The effects of worry are essentially 
those of overwork, and one of its effects is to 
diminish the controlling power of the vagus 
nerve, while at the same time exciting the 
sympathetic to increased activity; thus the 
pulse is accelerated, the heart beats rapidly, 


192 


NEURASTHENIA 


the lungs are congested, the skin is pale, the 
extremities cold, the pupils dilated, the body 
loses weight, sleep is disturbed and unre¬ 
freshing, and the body falls into a state of 
exhaustion. The muscles, while weak, seem 
to be tense—the irritability of weakness. 
Muscular twitching is common. Nearly all 
these symptoms are readily explained by the 
influence of worry upon the sympathetic 
nervous system. 

The pupils dilate because of exhaustion 
of the cranial nerves which contract the pu¬ 
pils, while the sympathetic, which dilates the 
pupil, keeps it stimulated. The breathing 
is slowed, through the exhaustion of the 
nerve centers which act upon the muscles of 
the chest. The skin is made pale by the con¬ 
traction of the blood-vessels, while at the 
same time there is a dilatation of the blood¬ 
vessels of the liver and other internal or¬ 
gans, the result of retro-stasis, in which 
there is an accumulation of blood in the in¬ 
ternal organs. Notwithstanding the pallor of 
the skin, the stimulation of the sympathetic 
nerve is sometimes so great that the sweat 


WORRY 


193 


glands produce a forced secretion, which ap¬ 
pears as cold sweat. 

Recent laboratory studies have brought 
out a number of additional highly interest¬ 
ing facts in relation to the physical effects 
of worry. Through the labors of Brown- 
Sequard and numerous other physiologists, 
it has been demonstrated that the body pro¬ 
duces a great number of internal secretions 
which are poured directly into the blood, in¬ 
stead of being discharged upon the surface 
of the skin or the mucous membrane. It is 
through the action of these subtle secretions 
that the intricate processes connected with 
nutrition are induced and regulated. It is 
probable that every cell in the body produces 
some subtle substance which acts upon and 
influences every other bodily cell in a specific 
manner. 

These substances are of two classes, hor¬ 
mones and chalones. Hormones are sub¬ 
stances which stimulate to activity, while 
chalones are substances which retard or con¬ 
trol activity. Both classes of substances are 
necessary for balanced vital activity. The 


194 


NEURASTHENIA 


organs which are most active in producing 
these internal secretions are the liver, pan¬ 
creas, thyroid, thymus, kidneys, adrenals, 
spleen, pituitary body, ovaries and testicles. 

The pancreas produces an internal secre¬ 
tion which, when combined with the ferment 
produced in the muscles, enables the muscles 
to convert sugar into mechanical energy. A 
disturbance of this function gives rise to 
diabetes. The adrenals are small glands con¬ 
nected with the kidneys, producing a sub¬ 
stance called epinephrin, or adrenalin, which 
causes contraction of the blood-vessels, and 
raises the blood-pressure. This secretion 
appears to be essential to support the ac¬ 
tivity of the heart and blood-vessels. Its in¬ 
fluence is so powerful that one physiologist 
was able to keep the heart of a dog beating 
actively, and the blood circulating through 
the animal’s body for twenty-four hours after 
the animal’s head had been removed. 

The pituitary body is a small structure 
found in the brain, which produces a sub¬ 
stance, pituita, which raises blood-pressure, 
and excites the action of the kidneys. The 


WORRY 


195 


thyroid gland produces a substance which 
causes dilatation of the blood-vessels. In 
health a nice balance is maintained between 
these various secretions. Worry disturbs 
the function of all the important organs of 
internal secretion. Worry has been known 
so to disturb the pancreas as to give rise to 
diabetes. Exophthalmic goiter, a disease as¬ 
sociated with excessive activity of the thy¬ 
roid, is believed to be produced in some 
cases by prolonged worry, which, through 
exciting the sympathetic nerve, overstim¬ 
ulates the thyroid. Stimulation of the pit¬ 
uitary body probably accounts for the pro¬ 
fuse flow of urine which frequently accom¬ 
panies worry. It has been proved that 
worry increases the secretion of adrenahn, 
the effect of which is to raise blood-pressure 
by overstimulating the heart and blood ves¬ 
sels. 

It is important to remember that while 
worry causes vaso-constriction, it is equally 
possible that vaso-constriction may produce 
worry. Weariness may so predispose a per¬ 
son to worry that slight causes of anxiety be 








196 


NEURASTHENIA 


^ come a source of continual worry and men¬ 
tal distress. The business man often finds 
himself, when worn and tired with his day’s 
labors, disposed to worry, while after a 
good night’s rest the mental state is com¬ 
pletely changed. 

A practical fact which must not be for¬ 
gotten is that while worry produces various 
morbid physical states, it is itself, in large 
part at least, a consequence of morbid condi¬ 
tions produced by other causes. A man who 
worries about his business may have real 
causes for anxiety. As long as his physical 
condition is sound, however, he does not 
worry, but faces his problems with courage 
and calmness, and when he has done his best 
to solve the problem or meet an emergency, 
calmly accepts the result. But let the same 
man under the same circumstances become 
the subject of chronic toxemia, through 
errors in diet or intestinal inactivity, or 
through the use of alcohol and tobacco, and 
the result may easily be the establishment of 
a predisposition to worry, on account of the 
production of the very same disturbances of 


WORRY 


197 


the pneumogastric and sympathetic nerves 
and the glands of internal secretion which 
are known to be a consequence of chronic 
worry, and thus the habit of worry may be 
induced, and worrying ultimately may be¬ 
come a fixed habit of the mind. This im¬ 
portant fact must not be overlooked. 

The writer, who has for many years been 
meeting thousands of subjects of worry of 
different sorts, has been led to divide the sub¬ 
jects of worry into three classes: 

1. Those who worry because of the ex¬ 
istence of real and natural causes of anxiety, 
such as great business responsibilities with 
threatened financial disaster, the prospect of 
the failure of cherished plans, etc. 

2. Those who worry about trifles or even 
purely imaginary troubles, as the result of 
general vital depression and mental disturb¬ 
ance due to toxemia, such as frequently ac¬ 
companies cases of chronic constipation, 
especially when associated with incompetency 
of the ileocecal valve, leading to the backing 
up of putrefactive material from the colon 


198 


NEURASTHENIA 


into the small intestine, and the rapid ab¬ 
sorption of toxic substances. 

3. Persons who, having formed the habit 
of worry through either one of the above- 
mentioned causes, continue to worry, not¬ 
withstanding the fact that the original excit¬ 
ing causes have been removed. 

The Cure for Worry 

When we consider the possible remedies 
for worry, it must be recognized at once that 
all cases cannot be treated alike. The man 
who worries because of the threatened col¬ 
lapse of an Important business enterprise, to 
the building up of which his whole life has 
been devoted, may not be relieved until the 
threatened danger is averted or the crisis 
passed. The man who is suffering from 
physical deterioration, because of chronic 
toxemia must be renovated physically* 
Poison habits must be abandoned. A natural 
anti-toxic dietary must be substituted for his 
customary poison-laden bill of fare. The 
bowels must, by natural means, be made to 
move three or four times a day, thus ridding 
the body of the influence of worry-producing 


WORRY 


199 


poisons. There must be a complete revolu¬ 
tion in living habits, and a thoroughgoing 
adoption of simple-life principles of living. 
By this means a general physical regenera¬ 
tion may be produced, with the development 
of which the disposition to worry will grad¬ 
ually disappear as the cause is removed, until 
finally a normal happy mental state is 
established. The writer has seen this trans* 
formation in so many thousands of cases, 
without any attempt at mental or psycho¬ 
therapeutics other than such encouragement 
as a physician naturally offers a despondent 
patient, that he feels fully convinced that in 
a large proportion, perhaps a great ma¬ 
jority, of cases the disposition to worry is 
the result of physical causes, with the re¬ 
moval of which the worry disappears along 
with other morbid symptoms. In the great 41 
multitude of worry patients there is to be 
found, nevertheless, a certain number of in¬ 
dividuals who worry only as the result of a 
pernicious habit, which may have been in¬ 
duced in the first place by an unusual press 
of business cares or some emergency, or 




200 


NEURASTHENIA 


as the result of a temporary illness which 
has produced the physical conditions which 
have been above referred to as both the con¬ 
sequence and the cause of the worry habit. 
Such persons are good subjects for “Chris¬ 
tian Science,” the Emmanuel movement 
method, or any form of mental therapeu¬ 
tics. Suggestion is unquestionably help¬ 
ful in cases of this sort. It is not necessary, 
however, that the suggestion should be em¬ 
ployed in a formal or professional way. The 
natural suggestive effect of a change and 
wholesome environment appropriate to the 
individual’s needs, operates as a far more 
potent remedy, and leads to more definite 
and permanent results than any form of pro¬ 
fessional suggestion. 

Diversion is one of the most valuable 
remedies for worry. Concentration of the 
attention upon some wholesome subject is of 
utmost importance as a means of combat¬ 
ing worry, whether due to present physical 
or mental causes or merely a residual habit. 
Constant occupation of some sort is essential 
as an aid to diversion. Manual w ork is 




WORRY 


201 


best. Gardening, boating, botanizing, bird 
study, nature study of any sort which takes 
one into the open, and such manual arts as 
basketry, weaving, pottery, mothercraft, 
sloyd, and carpentry, are highly useful occu¬ 
pations for a worrying invalid. The cura¬ 
tive value of the simple “arts and crafts” is 
now so well recognized that occupation de¬ 
partments have been added to the equipment 
of many of the best institutions for the treat¬ 
ment of nervous invalids. Forty years ago 
the writer adopted this method with much 
success in dealing with neurasthenics. Chop¬ 
ping and sawing wood were found to be 
most excellent winter occupations for men. 
Acting under the writer’s advice and en¬ 
couragement, many a worrying student or 
bank president worked off his worry at the 
wood pile. 

Professor Mikkelsen, of Copenhagen, 
general superintendent of sloyd in the public 
schools of Denmark, perfected many years 
ago a very complete system of wood sloyd 
especially adapted to the needs of invalids. 
Some years ago (1904) the management 





202 


NEURASTHENIA 


of the Battle Creek Sanitarium induced Pro¬ 
fessor Mikkelsen to come to this country to 
introduce his excellent system, and to train 
a corps of teachers to carry on the work for 
the benefit of the guests of the Sanitarium. 
Most excellent results have been seen from 
the application of this healthful and divert¬ 
ing occupation. Weaving, basketry and 
other “occupations” are also found most 
helpful. 

A most excellent diversion cure for worry 
is to be found in an effort to divert some 
other distracted neurasthenic from his cor¬ 
roding worries. An altruistic interest in the 
welfare of another sufferer is a most whole¬ 


some sort of diversion, especially as it may 
lead to a supreme effort of self-control. 

The neurasthenic who worries must learn 
to divert his mind from morbid channels by 
an effort of his own will. Pain may be dP 
vested of its poignancy and danger, and even 
inevitable death shorn of its terror, by vol¬ 
untary mental diversion. The Titanic sank 
beneath the waves with the passengers sing¬ 
ing and the band playing. 


v 



WORRY 


203 


Music, wholesome entertainments, pleas- 
ant games, golf, automobiling, agreeable 
conversation and a hundred other means of 
mental and physical diversion are all effec¬ 
tive remedies for worry; but none are so 
valuable as what the patient can do for him¬ 
self by voluntarily and resolutely turning his 
face away from his worries, and deliberately 
forcing his mind to give attention to other 
things. More than half the battle is won 
w r hen the neurasthenic can be induced to de¬ 
vise and plan for his own diversion. 

The most effective of all remedies for 
worry is to be found in religion. Christian 
faith is the greatest of all panaceas for 
mental maladies of this sort. True Chris¬ 
tian faith leaves no room for pessimism nor 
for inane, fruit less worry. 

The Bible abounds with antidotes for 
worry. Here are a few which have rendered 
incalculable help to thousands of worry-worn 
mortals: 

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not 
want.” 

“He restoreth my soul.” 

















204 


NEURASTHENIA 


“I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” 
Psalm 23. 

“The Lord is the strength of my life; of 
whom shall I be afraid?” 

“Let not your heart be troubled, neither 
let it be afraid.” 

“He forgiveth all thine iniquities; he heal- 
eth all thy diseases.” 

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

“In quietness and confidence shall be your 
strength.” 

“Thou hast put gladness in my heart . . . 
I will both lay me down in peace . . . for 
thou, Lord, . . .makest me dwell in safety.” 
Psalm 4. 

“The Lord also will be a refuge ... in 
times of trouble.” Psalm 9. 

“He hears the young ravens when they 
cry.” 

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, 
and he shall strengthen thine heart.” Psalm 
27. 

“I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and 
delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34. 


WORRY 


205 


“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for 
him: fret not thyself.” Psalm 37. 

“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 
and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope 
thou in God.” Psalm 42. 

If committed to memory and frequently 
repeated, these beautiful passages of scrip¬ 
ture, full of hope and cheer, will become 
fixed in the subconsciousness, and will ex¬ 
ercise a molding influence which, if encour¬ 
aged, may serve as a potent remedy for the 
worry habit. Faith in God, the Creator of 
all things, as a real, active Presence, a Power 
which sustains one’s life from moment to 
moment, keeping the heart beating, the lungs 
acting and all the processes of life in func¬ 
tion, has a marvelous effect in keeping the 
mind calm and evenly poised. Belief and 
trust in the Source of all life and power, “in 
whom we live and move and have our be¬ 
ing,” must be a more effective means of cast¬ 
ing out fear and worry or “fear thought” 
than any form of hypnotical suggestion, or 
any other subterfuge or substitute for Chris¬ 
tian faith. 





The Philosophy of Sleep 

Sleep, and the lack of sleep, are factors of 
so great importance in relation to neuras¬ 
thenia that it seems well worth while to de¬ 
vote a short chapter to this very interesting 
function. Why do we sleep? and Why do 
we waken from sleep? are questions which 
have been long and earnestly discussed by 
physiologists and which even yet are not 
fully settled. Some facts are known, but the 
reasons therefor are not altogether clear. 

A Russian observer noted that the blood- 
pressure falls twenty to fifty points during 
sleep. Mosso found from the study of a 
case in which a portion of the skull had been 
lost, and a study of monkeys in whose skulls 
a glass window had been arranged, that the 
brain diminishes in volume during sleep, while 
the volume of the rest of the body increases. 

Fall of Blood-pressure during Sleep 

The simple explanation is that the blood 
recedes from the brain during sleep. This 


206 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


207 


condition seems to be essential for perfect- 
rest and for the repair of the exhausted 
brain cells. When the blood recedes, the 
nutritive lymph takes its place and thus sup¬ 
plies the cells with nutritive material, while 
diminishing the stimulating oxygen which is 
brought in contact with the cells through the 
blood. 

Quiet Essential for Restful Sleep 

One of the conditions essential for health¬ 
ful, restful sleep is quiet. No doubt the con¬ 
stant din of the city, which never ceases day 
nor night, is a prolific source of neuras¬ 
thenia. In sleep the ears are the last ave¬ 
nue to the mind which is closed, and it is 
doubtful whether the ears ever become 
wholly insensitive to external sounds even 
during the most profound sleep. The con¬ 
stant hammering of noise upon the sensitive 
brain cells day and night leaves no oppor¬ 
tunity for complete rest, and the result is ab¬ 
normal irritability and disease. 

Experiments first made by Mosso, and 
since repeated by many physiologists, show 
that even during the most profound sleep the 


208 


NEURASTHENIA 


circulation of blood in the brain is affected 
both by noises and by the dreams which are 
provoked by external sounds. By means of 
the plethysmograph, the effect of these in¬ 
fluences may be easily studied. This device 
consists of two parts. (i) A chamber in 
which an arm or a foot is placed; (2) a re¬ 
cording device, by which the very slightest 
changes in the volume of the part are regis¬ 
tered by a tracing upon a moving surface of 
smoked paper. The accompanying cuts, from 
Howell’s excellent work on physiology, are 
reproductions of records obtained in this 
way from a person when asleep. The small 
pointed curves indicate the movements of 
the heart; the large downward curve in the 
tracing is the result of a noise made at x 
by setting a music box in operation. In the 
first of the two tracings the noise was not 
sufficiently loud to awaken the sleeper. In 
the second tracing he awoke, and, as will be 
noted, the curve is deeper. The drop in the 
tracing is due to the fact that when the brain 
was excited by sound, its blood-vessels di¬ 
lated, diverting blood from the arm of the 




Curves Showing Effects of Noises on Sleep 

B, effect of external Impression (music box), sufficient to 
awaken sleeper—a marked diminution in volume of the arm; 
B, effect of external impression (music box), insufficient to 
awaken sleeper; a str -oer diminution in volume followed by 
dilatation as the subjec. am falls asleep. 





PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


209 


sleeper, which thus became smaller. The 
smaller drops in the curve all indicate cir¬ 
culatory disturbances of similar origin. 

The Theory of Sleep 

Numerous theories have been proposed to 
account for the phenomenon of sleep. Bouch¬ 
ard believed sleep to be due to the accumula¬ 
tion in the body of a narcotic poison which, 
according to his view, increases during the 
waking hours and diminishes during sleep. 
The awaking he believed to be due to the 
development during sleep of a spasm-produc¬ 
ing poison which causes muscular twitching 
and wakes the sleeper up. 

Hypnotoxin 

Pieron believes he has succeeded in sepa¬ 
rating from the blood a poison which he 
calls “hypnotoxin,” which accumulates dur¬ 
ing waking hours. Dogs die when deprived 
of sleep for ten or twelve days, and accord¬ 
ing to this observer, with marked symptoms 
of poisoning. 

Cajal, the discoverer of the neuron, ex- 


210 


NEURASTHENIA 


plains sleep by the supposition that con¬ 
sciousness is due to the formation of con¬ 
tacts of the terminal filaments of the axons 
of cells in the front part of the brain with 
the dendrites of cells in the centers in which 
sensory impressions are stored. Uncon¬ 
sciousness is the result of a breaking of these 
contacts by contraction of the axons or den¬ 
drites. That is, consciousness exists when 
the circuits of the brain batteries are closed, 
just as the door bell rings when the elec¬ 
trical circuit is closed by pressing the button. 
But what force or influence presses the but¬ 
ton? This nobody knows. 

First Sleep the Most Profound and 
Refreshing 

Czerny and other observers have pointed 
out the interesting fact that the most pro¬ 
found sleep occurs within the first two hours 
after retiring. The intensity of sleep was 
measured by the intensity of the sound re¬ 
quired to awaken the sleeper. 

The known facts of sleep seem to harmon¬ 
ize well enough with each of the theories 
proposed, and indeed with all of them, so 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


211 


that each may be a part of the truth. It is 
clear enough that work—even the casual 
work of idleness, for the brain is never really 
idle—creates a necessity for sleep, a con¬ 
dition in which the output of energy is dimin¬ 
ished so that the intake predominates and 
thus restores to the cell its store of energy, 
which has been dissipated during the waking 
and working hours. 

The Brain—a Storage Battery Which Is 
Recharged during Sleep 

Nothing could be more unwise than the at¬ 
tempt to cheat Nature of her opportunity 
for replenishing the body’s energy supply. 
The granules of the cells are like the am¬ 
munition of the gunner. It is energy stuff, 
which under the influence of the will may be 
made to yield up its store of force in small 
explosions of ideas and impulses, which may 
be organized into plans, theories and ac¬ 
tions. Primarily a man’s working power 
depends upon his storage capacity for energy 
stuff, and the amount of available material 
in the store. 


212 


NEURASTHENIA 


Damaging Effect of Work with Insufficient 

Sleep 

Many persons have become neurasthenic 
through attempting to follow the custom of 
a Napoleon, a Wellington, an Edison, or 
some other great man reputed to have been 
able to work hard and continuously with an 
allowance of only four or five hours for 
sleep. It is probable that no human being 
has been able to work continuously for any 
considerable length of time on only four 
hours in the twenty-four. It is said that 
Napoleon spent only four hours in bed, but 
biographers tell us that he took frequent 
naps in the day time. Wellington has also 
been said to have been contented with four 
hours of sleep at night, but it is recorded by 
one of his biographers that he not infre¬ 
quently fell asleep at the dinner table; and 
on one occasion his son, who was riding with 
him, discovered that he had fallen asleep 
while driving a spirited horse at a brisk pace 
down one of the principal streets of Lon¬ 
don. 

Mr. Thomas A. Edison, one of the hard- 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


213 


est working men of the present or any other 
time, and whose genius has developed more 
important inventions than can be credited to 
any other living man, is also reputed to re¬ 
quire but four hours’ sleep daily. This also 
is an error. The writer has been informed 
by persons who are w r ell acquainted with 
Mr. Edison’s habits that while the great in¬ 
ventor spends only four hours in bed, and 
sometimes does not undress for several days 
in succession, he nevertheless has a bed in 
his laboratory on w T hich he drops down for 
a short nap whenever he feels inclined, which 
is often several times a day. An intimate 
friend of Mr. Edison said to the writer in 
answer to an inquiry upon this subject, “Mr. 
Edison sleeps as much as people usually do.’’ 

No one should imagine that a high degree 
of brain activity can be maintained continu¬ 
ously without giving the brain an oppor¬ 
tunity for storing energy, which can only be 
done by the complete rest and repose to be 
secured by seven or eight hours of sleep. A 
very few persons may be able to get along 
fairly well with six hours, but eight hours of 


214 


NEURASTHENIA 


complete rest in bed are required by the av¬ 
erage person. Many persons who have a 
predisposition to neurasthenia require an 
hour or two more. 

Sleeplessness 

Sleeplessness is often one of the most per¬ 
sistent and distressing of all the various dis¬ 
orders to which the neurasthenic is subject. 
Every sleepless night aggravates the disease 
and intensifies every symptom. Drugs are 
not only useless as curative agents, but are 
often dangerous because they increase the 
neurasthenia, even when they induce sleep, 
and ultimately intensify the insomnia. 

Fortunately there are simple but most ef¬ 
fective means by which insomnia may be re¬ 
lieved. The most important of these is the 
neutral bath. This consists of a full bath at 
a temperature of 92 0 to 96° F. A bath of 
this temperature has wonderful calmative 
and soporific effects. The duration of the 
bath may be as long as necessary to produce 
the desired effects. Several hours in the bath 
may be required. Sooner or later the dis¬ 
position to sleep will come, and then the pa- 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


215 


tient may leave the bath and retire. In get¬ 
ting out of the bath the greatest care must be 
taken to avoid chilling, even in the slightest 
degree. The patient should not be cooled off 
in the manner usual after warm baths, but 
should be wrapped in a Turkish sheet and 
gently dried (not rubbed), and should then 
slip into a warm bed as quietly as possible. 

The wet-girdle is another remedy which 
proves quite efficient in a very large number 
of cases. This measure consists of a moist 
towel wrung quite dry out of cold water, 
then applied about the trunk and covered 
with a dry flannel and mackintosh, or oiled 
muslin. Care must be taken that the edges 
of the moist towel are not exposed, as the 
evaporation thus induced will cause chilling 
and so destroy the good effect of the appli¬ 
cation. This bandage may be worn every 
night for months if necessary, but a fresh 
towel must be used every day to avoid infec¬ 
tion of the skin. 

The wet-sheet pack is another simple sleep 
producer of great power. It has the advan¬ 
tage that it may be used when a full bath is 


216 


NEURASTHENIA 


not available, and as the patient goes to 
sleep in the pack he may be allowed to sleep 
undisturbed for several hours, or even 
the whole night. The wet-sheet pack is more 
difficult of application and requires the serv¬ 
ices of a nurse well trained and experienced 
in hydriatic methods. 

Gentle exercise in the fresh air in one’s 
bedroom, just before retiring, conduces to 
sleep by diverting an excess of blood from 
the brain to the muscles. Massage, espe¬ 
cially directed to the feet and legs, acts in 
the same way as a derivative of blood from 
the head. A hot bag to the feet when they 
are cold, and a cold bag when the feet are 
hot, are other useful measures. 

Sleeping in the open air is not only con¬ 
ducive to sleep, but secures other advantages 
which are of great service to the neuras¬ 
thenic, increasing nerve tone, appetite, and 
improving digestion and general vital resist¬ 
ance. 

A Simple Device for Inducing Sleep 

A simple device which sometimes aids in 
inducing sleep is the following: On going to 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


217 


bed take along a card and a short bit of pen¬ 
cil. After taking care to compose the body 
and mind in as comfortable a state as pos¬ 
sible, begin taking regular and deep breaths, 
putting down a mark on the card for each 
breath. The number of marks on the card 
in the morning will serve as a record of the 
time required for getting to sleep. This 
simple means serves to divert the mind from 
harassing subjects and induces a monotonous 
mental state which is favorable to sleep. 

The Noise Nuisance 

That noise may be a cause of disease is no 
longer questioned by pathologists. Certain 
persons get used to noises, no matter of what 
sort, when long exposed to them, and seem 
to suffer no injury; but even these persons 
are being damaged more or less by the con¬ 
stant hammering upon their nerve centers 
through the auditory nerves. Nerve centers 
need rest quite as much as do muscles. With¬ 
out the complete rest which is essential for 
quiet repose, the strongest nervous system 
will ultimately break down with nervous ex- 


218 


NEURASTHENIA 


haustion or with some more specific nerve 
disorder. 

Many persons are born with sensitive 
nerves. The neurotic type is rapidly increas¬ 
ing, both as the result of our perverted civil¬ 
ization and as the result of heredity, Na¬ 
ture's inexorable bookkeeper, which puts 
down every infraction of the laws of physical 
rectitude, and takes care that every seed of 
disease thus planted bears its legitimate crop 
in the children of the wrong-doer, as well as 
in his own experience. 

These hyper-sensitive people are great 
sufferers from the varied noises which make 
up the hum and roar of city life. Even 
sleep does not deliver them from the wear 
and tear of the discordant acoustic waves 
that are continually pounding their ear 
drums. When we sleep, we close our eyes and 
thus shut out the light, with its irritating acti¬ 
nic and luminous vibrations; but we cannot 
close our ears in similar fashion. They re¬ 
main open during sleep, and sound impres¬ 
sions continue to pour into the brain pre¬ 
cisely as during our waking hours. This is 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


219 


doubtless a wise arrangement by which Na¬ 
ture provides that the body shall not alto¬ 
gether be cut off from communication with 
the external world, even during sleep. 

Sound, restful sleep in the presence of 
noise is thus impossible. A person who lives 
in the midst of noise gets no really complete 
rest day or night; asleep or awake, the nerve 
centers are constantly receiving a torrent of 
irritating impulses. This incessant nerve 
nagging gives no opportunity for recupera¬ 
tive rest. 

The Public Too Forbearing 

The public has been quite too tolerant and 
long-suffering in this matter. Not infre¬ 
quently noisy factories are permitted to lo¬ 
cate in the center of populous sections. Loco¬ 
motives and factories are allowed to blow 
powerful whistles and sirens that in some 
cases make the windows rattle a mile away. 
Street car lines are permitted to run worn- 
out cars with flat wheels which pound the 
rails like gigantic trip-hammers. A host of 
unnecessary and nerve-racking noises are 
permitted which might easily be suppressed 


220 


NEURASTHENIA 


by the concerted action of intelligent citizens. 

Writes one of the leading nerve specialists 
of St. Louis, who is fighting the nuisance in 
that beer- and noise-ridden city: “The un¬ 
necessary noises of modern times are turn¬ 
ing the nation into a multitude of sleep neur¬ 
asthenics. The worst noises of the day are 
the automobile horns, the street cars, and the 
screeching of factory whistles. Who can de¬ 
fend the chorus of whistles that the manu¬ 
facturing establishments turn loose morning, 
noon, and night? Then there are the church 
bells; they have outlived their usefulness. 
People nowadays do not need to be called to 
worship by a thundering peal from half a 
dozen bells, for certainly every one can af¬ 
ford a dollar watch. The shrill screech of 
the peanut vender’s wagon also ought to be 
suppressed.” 

Noise Making a Neurotic Habit 

One of our popular magazines, in a very 
intelligent discussion of the question of 
noise, says: “Noise is fast becoming a neu¬ 
rotic habit of the American people. In¬ 
evitably, as an organism takes the impress of 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


22! 


its environment, a persistent atmosphere of 
confusion sooner or later forms a perma¬ 
nent background of consciousness. The ner¬ 
vous system, constantly compelled to combat 
with noise, acquires a habitual alertness, and 
an abnormal irritability keeps it forever oc¬ 
cupied. Actual quiet produces a functional 
vacuum. Tension, incompatible with real 
rest, marks even the hours of customary re¬ 
pose. 

“Locomotives shriek in town and country 
by night and by day. Beautiful suburbs in 
our Western cities suffer nightly from the in¬ 
cessant signals of engines on adjacent freight 
tracks. A great university has its campus 
doubly crossed by railway lines, and hourly 
its lecturers pause, unable to compete with 
the noise-drowming steam-blasts of the loco¬ 
motives as they approach the viaducts. 
Trolley-cars replace the steam whistle with 
the compressed air ‘screamer.’ 

“Electric and cable cars, upon surface or 
elevated lines, contribute a large share to the 
general and miscellaneous volume of a city’s 
noise. The grind of flanges upon unlubri- 


222 


NEURASTHENIA 


cated curves; the unnecessary back-lash of 
worn gearing upon down-grades; the rattle 
of cable and clutch and brake; the roar and 
jar of rushing speed—all testify to the fact 
that science has not yet secured the means of 
reducing locomotive noise. 

“Steamers, tug-boats, and electric launches, 
practise a well-nigh fiendish ingenuity in 
their varied achievement of toot and whistle 
as they ply the lakes and rivers, while occa¬ 
sionally some sportive captain equips his 
craft with a steam siren by way of making 
extra noise. 

“In many towns and cities of America 
operatives are called to work, to eat, and— 
strange paradox—to rest, by a concert of 
blasts from the throats of score? or hun¬ 
dreds of factory whistles. Frequently, the 
factory clocks vary by minutes, when the 
concert of noise is broken and becomes a suc¬ 
cession of prolonged and painful shrieks. It 
is still the custom in many places to put 
steam-whistles into service as a fire-alarm. 

“Wagons, laden with structural materials, 
add to the babel of cities the jar of their 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


223 


carelessly loaded burdens. Automobiles 
course the city streets and country roads with 
every variety of discordant signal. 

‘‘Street peddlers vie with one another in 
the noisy advertisement of their wares. 
Newsboys re-echo the sensational features of 
the press in tones as exaggerated as many of 
the journals they vend. Enthusiasm, in any 
and every cause, vents itself in catcalls, horns 
and piercing whistles. 

“That noise has never been defined as a 
public nuisance under the common law or 
the sanitary code is strange, for it is easy to 
prove its injury to human health. In com¬ 
mon with all stimulants, its withdrawal 
makes its pathological influence phy¬ 
siologically clear. 

When the Stillness Hurts 

“Now and again, when the vast volume of 
a city’s roar is broken by some musical 
sound, the sense of auditory relief is testi¬ 
mony to the nerve tension which the hearer 
habitually and unconsciously suffers. Even 
in the comparative calm of a city’s night, this 


224 


NEURASTHENIA 


nerve tension enters into sleep, and mars the 
relaxation upon which rest depends. 

“When the neurasthenic undertakes the 
rest-cure, the overwrought and exhausted 
nervous system at first rebels against the en¬ 
forced quietude. It has been strung to noise. 
So integral a part of the consciousness be¬ 
comes the appreciation of habitual sound 
that actual silence brings a painful sense of 
vacuum, to w T hich the nervous mechanism 
finds it difficult to adjust itself. A young lad, 
whose life had been spent in the ceaseless up¬ 
roar of a great city, cried out upon his first 
introduction to the countryside, ‘Oh! it is 
too much! The stillness hurts!’ 

“The mischievous consequences of irrita¬ 
tive stimuli are not by any means confined to 
the specific sensations that they evoke. 
Against these prejudicial influences, the nerv¬ 
ous system wears an invisible armor, which 
the physiologist calls the quality of resist¬ 
ance. Multitudinous stimuli act upon the 
peripheral sense organs of hearing, of sight, 
of touch, etc., to which the nerve centers are 
refractory. They may excite impressions. 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


225 


which flood the avenues of special sense, but 
against these, whenever they are ineffective 
(subminimal), whenever they are too inten¬ 
sive (hyper-maximal), or whenever they are 
markedly arhythmical, this wall of resis¬ 
tance in the nerve-centers is raised 

“That not only the response but the re¬ 
sistance of nerve-cells means the expenditure 
of energy is shown by the fact that when 
nerve-cells suffer partial exhaustion, their re¬ 
sistance is readily overcome; they prove too 
easily responsive. Slight stimuli provoke in 
them marked reaction; strong stimuli, 
riotous results. In early and in late life this 
instability of the nervous mechanism is fre¬ 
quently exhibited. The aged start at slight 
and unexpected noises. An infant of four 
months, startled by the explosion of a can¬ 
non cracker, has been known to pass into 
convulsions. 

“The nervous system is prejudiced by the 
forced recognition of unpleasant impressions 
induced by marked noises; but it is also con¬ 
tinually taxed to maintain a barrier of pro¬ 
tection against the conscious effects of a 


226 


NEURASTHENIA 


great volume of minor noise stimuli or to 
interpose muffling or dampering agencies be¬ 
tween the nerve-centers and their excessive 
and offensive stimulation in this auditory 
field. 

Education of the Public Needed 

“A careful review of the principal sources 
of noise nuisance suggests that education, 
leading up to public legislation on the one 
hand, and to personal control on the other, is 
requisite for relief. 

“The general adoption of the block sys¬ 
tem, with automatic semaphores and cross¬ 
ing-guards, would do away with virtually all 
locomotive signals on steam and trolley 
roads. Muffling or sound-deadening devices 
of various sorts are available for applica¬ 
tion to both locomotive and stationary en¬ 
gines. So far as safety demands the re¬ 
tention of sound-signals on boats and motor¬ 
cars, a certain musical quality in these may 
be secured. The tremolo, in use upon some 
automobiles, is proof of the possibility. 

“Preference should be given to those 
forms of street paving which combine dur- 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


227 


ability and sound-muffling qualities. Man¬ 
hole covers may be made to fit firmly. Wa¬ 
gons, loaded with structural materials un¬ 
cushioned to prevent jar, should be forbid¬ 
den to travel upon the public streets. Rub¬ 
ber tires, already in general use, should in¬ 
variably be employed. Whistling in street 
cars should be forbidden. 

“Vendors should be required to present 
their wares in inoffensive quiet. Public and 
private celebrations which partake of the 
nature of riot should be forbidden by law. 
The use of firearms and fireworks should 
be generally suppressed in the interest, not 
only of life and limb, but of nerve-poise.” 

Local and national associations are needed 
to organize and carry on a campaign against 
noise. A New York City society has al¬ 
ready accomplished much in this direction. 
The matter has been taken up with consid¬ 
erable success in other cities. 

The noise nuisance is an evil which can be 
suppressed. It is only necessary to awaken 
a general sentiment against this great public 
wrong. 


228 


NEURASTHENIA 


There is another phase of the noise ques¬ 
tion, which must not be overlooked. Part, 
at least, of the injury we suffer from noise 
is due to the undue attention given it. A 
neurasthenic may ride a week on a thunder¬ 
ing train without experiencing the slightest 
inconvenience from the incessant noise, but, 

arrived at his home, he is made miserable 

• 

by the rattling of a cart, the thrumming of a 
neighbor’s piano, the chirping of a cricket, or 
the prattle of little children on the street. 
The mind may be trained to ignore and cease 
to hear those incessant noises which are 
necessarily incident to civilized life, and 
from which we cannot altogether escape. 

This is well illustrated by the following 
interesting account by Dr. Paul Dubois, of 
Berne, of the cure of a noise-distracted neu¬ 
rasthenic : 

“M. X. was a neurasthenic, forty years of 
age, who had always been easily fatigued, 
and whose moods were slightly hypochondri¬ 
acal. He suffered from dyspepsia, and often 
from insomnia, but what annoyed him most 
was his sensitiveness to noise. The noises 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


229 


of the street irritated his nerves and gave 
him headache. Finding no indications for 
Weir Mitchell’s treatment, I established the 
patient in a boarding-house. Scarcely had 
he come there than he began to complain. 
There was a coppersmith in the neighbor¬ 
hood, who every day hammered his brasses; 
the patient counted the blows of the work¬ 
man, and when the last had stopped, he 
would say to himself: ‘It is going to begin 
again.’ There were a great many carts 
which passed, and which ground on the 
gravel on the road. That was unbearable. 
At night there were dogs which barked at 
the moon, and neighbors who came home 
late. 

“It was with an accent of reproach that 
he told me his annoyances, for he had 
warned me by letter, several weeks in ad¬ 
vance, that he must have a quiet room. 

“ ‘Monsieur,’ I said to him, ‘I have no 
other room at your disposal, and if you will 
take my advice it will be better to stay here. 
Even if I had a quieter room, I should hesi¬ 
tate to give it to you.’ 


230 


NEURASTHENIA 


“ ‘Ah, really, it Is not very amiable of you 
to say that.’ 

“ ‘Pardon me, you misunderstand the 
meaning of my words. You want, do you 
not, to get rid of this sensitiveness to noise, 
which has tormented you for so many years? 
If I should put you in a chamber of luxurious 
silence you would suffer less, but when I let 
you come out you would be still more sensi¬ 
tive; you know that when we have been in 
the dark the light of a candle dazzles us. 
You will never get over this infirmity by cul¬ 
tivating your hyperesthesia. I most certainly 
do not want to exaggerate things, and I have 
no intention of placing you under particu¬ 
larly difficult conditions, as in a noisy home. 
But the retreat which I offer you is as tran¬ 
quil as the average. You will find noises 
everywhere resulting from the activity of 
your fellows. You do not, however, want to 
live the life of a hermit; your profession 
requires a sojourn in town. What will be¬ 
come of you if you do not know how to 
bring back your sensibility to the normal 
conditions?’ 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


231 


“ ‘But it is stronger than I. My auditory 
nerves are endowed with a diseased sensi¬ 
bility.’ 

“ ‘You are wrong. Your auditory acute¬ 
ness is normal. It is not your ears which 
are too sensitive; it is your mind. The noise 
tires you only because you have the convic¬ 
tion that you cannot stand it. Just believe 
me, no one hears anything but that for which 
he listens (you have told me that you count 
the workman’s blows) ; no one sees anything 
except what he looks at; no one has any 
sensations except those to which he pays at¬ 
tention. Undoubtedly, if the noise is too 
loud, and the light too blinding, our atten¬ 
tion is immediately fixed, and I will not ask 
you not to tremble if a bomb bursts beside 
you. But the noises of life are inevitable, 
and we must know how to pay no attention 
to them. What neurasthenics lack is the 
power of adaptation. Say then: I will pay 
no more attention to these noises; they do not 
exceed what is possible to bear.’ 

“At the end of three days my patient had 
suppressed his hyperesthesia.” 


How a Neurasthenic Should Live 


In this chapter will be presented an out¬ 
line of the general course of life to be fol¬ 
lowed by all neurasthenics, and by those who 
have a hereditary predisposition to neuras¬ 
thenia, although the characteristic features 
of the disease may not as yet have made 
their appearance. 

Children of neurasthenic or neurotic par¬ 
ents may, by the adoption of the mode of life 
herein outlined, escape the miseries endured 
by their parents, and develop and maintain 
a degree of efficiency and endurance equal to 
that of the average normal person. 

A neurasthenic who desires deliverance 
from the wretchedness and inefficiency en¬ 
tailed by this malady must first of all re¬ 
solve to obtain recovery, whatever cost of 
effort or self-denial may be involved. Every 
harmful indulgence, every extravagant waste 
of energy, must be abandoned. Health cul¬ 
ture must be entered upon with all the ear- 


232 


HOW TO LIVE 


233 


nestness and enthusiasm and thoroughness 
essential to success in any business enter¬ 
prise. The recovery of health and the 
building up of physical and mental endur¬ 
ance and efficiency must not be regarded or 
treated as a secondary matter, but must be 
made, for the time being, at least, the ob¬ 
ject of concentrated and undivided effort. 

Since neurasthenia, with other degenera¬ 
tive disorders, is primarily a result of de¬ 
parture from natural or physiologic modes 
of life, the thing of first importance is an 
intelligent and thoroughgoing return to Na¬ 
ture. In other words, a neurasthenic must 
live the simple life. What this involves may 
be learned by a careful study of the follow¬ 
ing rules, which were formulated by the 
writer some years ago and published under 
the title, “The Simple Life in a Nutshell,” 
here somewhat expanded by introduction of 
a number of explanatory paragraphs. 

How to Live the Simple Life 

It is not possible to embody in a few 
simple rules all the instruction necessary to 


234 


NEURASTHENIA 


enable a person to lead a well-ordered and 
physiologic life. It is possible, however, to 
formulate a few simple statements, the more 
important principles of conduct which experi¬ 
ence has shown to be most in harmony with 
the requirements of biology and human 
physiology. 

The fundamental idea of the simple life 
is based upon the fact that man, like all 
other animals, is subject to certain great bio¬ 
logic laws which rule his existence in the 
same inexorable way that gravitation acts 
upon the planets and the stars. The bio¬ 
logic laws which relate to man’s well-be¬ 
ing as a mammal and as a member of the 
family of primates cannot be ignored with 
any degree of safety any more than the air¬ 
man can ignore the laws of aeronautics, or 
the sailor the principles of navigation. In 
law we live, move, and have our being; 
when by attempting to ignore the laws which 
especially relate to animal organisms of wild 
species and type we become outlaws, the 
same great principles of vital activity which 
support or maintain our lives become de- 


HOW TO LIVE 


235 


structive agencies through which we become 
a prey to disease and premature decay. 

The following rules are not a compilation, 
but rather a crystallized expression of the 
results of the study of the physical habits of 
many thousands of men and women. The 
writer has enjoyed a somewhat extensive op¬ 
portunity to study this subject, and has 
undertaken to present a summary of his ob¬ 
servations in a series of rules which consti¬ 
tute his own health code. 

General Rules for Healthful Living 

1. Give attention daily to cultivating 
health. It will pay. Study the conditions 
and the surroundings of the home and the 
business, and give careful thought to per¬ 
sonal habits and practices, with special refer¬ 
ence to their bearing on health. 

2. Recognizing that health of mind and 
body is one of the most valuable of all per¬ 
sonal assets, make every reasonable effort to 
maintain intact, and, if possible, increase the 
capital of physical and mental strength. 

3. Give to the body and its functions that 


236 


NEURASTHENIA 


care and study which you would accord to 
any other valuable and costly mechanism. 

Eating for Health and Efficiency 

4. Eat only natural foods; that is, those 
which are naturally adapted to the human 
constitution. The natural dietary includes 
fruits, nuts, cooked grains, legumes and 
vegetables, perhaps milk and eggs in mod¬ 
eration and also butter. Natural food im¬ 
parts to the body the greatest amount of 
energy, and maintains normal conditions of 
life. No animals except scavengers and men 
eat everything. We should follow our near¬ 
est relatives, the orang-utan and chimpanzee, 
in diet. 

5. Avoid meats of all sorts (flesh, fowl, 
fish, including “sea food”). These are un¬ 
natural foods. They are all likely to con¬ 
tain deadly parasites of various kinds, and 
always contain countless numbers of noxious 
germs, “meat bacteria” or “wild germs,” 
which infest the intestines, cause putrefac¬ 
tion and other poison-forming processes, and 
inoculate the body with colitis and many 
other diseases. These germs are not de- 


C 


HOW TO LIVE 


237 


stroyed by ordinary cooking, such as stew¬ 
ing, broiling, frying and roasting. 

The following table shows the number of 
germs found in different meats obtained 
fresh from the market: 


Specimen 


No. 1 Large sausage. 

2 Small sausage. 

3 Round steak . 

4 Roast beef . 

5 Smoked ham. 

6 Hamburger steak .... 

7 Pork. 

8 Porterhouse steak .... 

9 Sirloin steak . 

10 Tenderloin (well done) 

11 Tenderloin (rare) .. . 


Putrefactive Bacteria 


Per 

Ounce 

When 

After 20 hrs. 

Purchased 

at room temp. 

12,600,000,000 

14,700,000,000 

19,890,000,000 

19,212,000,000 

16,800,000,000 

25,200,000,000 

16,800,000,000 

22,500,000,000 

1,293,600,000 

22,500,000,000 

3,870,000,000 

21,000,000,000 

3,781,200,000 

31,080,000,000 

900,000,000 

21,000,000,000 

11,340,000,000 


756,000.000 


5,040,000,000 



6 . Take care to avoid an excess of pro¬ 
tein; that is, the albuminous element, which 
is represented by lean meat, the white of 
eggs and the curd of milk. An excess of pro¬ 
tein promotes putrefaction, and thus intes¬ 
tinal autointoxication, the chief cause of “bil¬ 
iousness,” colitis, appendicitis, gall-stones, 
arteriosclerosis, possibly cancer, Bright’s dis¬ 
ease and premature old age. Ordinary 






















238 


NEURASTHENIA 


bread contains a sufficient amount of protein, 
as do also most other cereals. Most nuts, 
also peas and beans, contain an excess of 
protein, and should be eaten sparingly. 

A growing infant is daily supplied, in the 
mother’s milk, which constitutes its natural 
food, with one calory of protein for each 
pound of its body weight. Since an infant is 
building up its bodily tissues, it must require 
a larger proportion of protein than is really 
necessary for an adult; hence it may safely 
be said that one calory of protein per pound 
of body weight is amply sufficient to supply 
all the actual needs of the body. 

This amount of protein may be repre¬ 
sented, in a person weighing 120 pounds, to 
be one ounce of dried protein. Such a 
quantity of protein is furnished by any of 
the following: 28 ounces of milk; 8 eggs; 
3 ounces of pine nuts; 4 ounces of dried 
peas; 8 ounces of wheat meal; 37 ounces of 
potato; 4 ounces of almonds. 

7. Eggs should be eaten in great mod¬ 
eration, if at all. They encourage autoin¬ 
toxication, and thus often cause “bilious- 


HOW TO LIVE 


239 


ness.” The yolk of the egg is more whole¬ 
some than the white. 

8. Cow’s milk is not altogether suited for 
human food. A large proportion of invalids 
—nearly half, perhaps—suffer from “casein 
dyspepsia,” and cannot take milk without 
suffering from constipation, headache, “bil¬ 
iousness,” coated tongue, or other unpleas¬ 
ant symptoms which indicate intestinal auto¬ 
intoxication. Such persons may sometimes 
make use of fresh buttermilk, sour milk, cot¬ 
tage cheese, yogurt cheese or yogurt milk, 
with less difficulty, and even with benefit. 
Excellent substitutes for milk may be pre¬ 
pared from nuts (almond cream, malted 
nuts). 

9. Animal fats, such as lard, suet and 
ordinary butter, should be avoided. They 
are difficult of digestion, and promote intes¬ 
tinal autointoxication, and thus cause “bil¬ 
iousness.” To be wholesome, butter must be 
perfectly sweet, and should be made from 
sterilized cream. 

Persons who are not subject to casein 
dyspepsia are often able to digest sterilized 


240 


NEURASTHENIA 


cream more easily than batter. Persons who 
suffer from hyperpepsia—“sour stomach”— 
may take sterilized butter and cream more 
freely than those who suffer from slow di¬ 
gestion. When butter and cream produce 
pimples on the face, a coated tongue, or a 
bad taste in the mouth, they must be dimin¬ 
ished in quantity, or omitted altogether. 

10. Vegetable fats are more easily diges¬ 
tible, and do not encourage intestinal autoin¬ 
toxication. 

Nuts, malted nuts, ripe olives and olive 
oil are excellent substitutes for butter and 
cream. 

11. Chlorid of sodium, or common salt, 
should be used sparingly. According to 
Richet and others, the food naturally con¬ 
tains all the chlorid of sodium actually re¬ 
quired by the body, so that the addition of 
salt to the food is necessary only to please 
an acquired taste. A safe rule, The less the 
better. Persons who have dropsy, Bright’s 
disease, arteriosclerosis, gastric ulcer, hy¬ 
peracidity, as well as obese persons and 
epileptics, should discard salt. 


HOW TO LIVE 


241 


12. Food combinations should be such as 
to give the proper proportion of the several 
elements—proteins, carbohydrates and fats. 
Fruits and vegetables, as well as other com¬ 
binations of natural foodstuffs, agree per¬ 
fectly when mastication is sufficiently thor¬ 
ough to reduce the food to a liquid state in 
the mouth. 

13. The quantity of food should be 
adapted to the size of the person and the 
amount of work which he does. Never eat 
to satiety. A moderately active person of 
average height requires 200 calories of 
protein (Ko), 600 calories of fat (%o) 
and 1,200 calories, of carbohydrates 
(%o), or a total of 2,000 calories, or food 
units, daily. This is furnished by the fol¬ 
lowing: Bread, 10^ ozs.; milk, 6 ozs.; po¬ 
tatoes, 8 ozs.; butter, 2 % ozs.; rice flakes, 
iJ4 ozs.; cream, 2 Y\ ozs.; apples, 7 ozs. 
The proper quantities for any bill of fare 
may be easily calculated by aid of the “Bat¬ 
tle Creek Sanitarium Diet List.” (Pub¬ 
lished by the Good Health Publishing Co., 
Battle Creek, Mich. Price 25 cents, post- 


242 


NEURASTHENIA 


paid.) Be careful to eat enough to maintain 
normal weight (see table in the “Diet 
List”). The body can dispose of a small 
excess, but cannot make up deficiency. 

14. Weigh once a month. To reduce 
weight, eat less and exercise more. To gain 
in flesh, eat more starchy foods and butter, 
oil or nuts. Eat one-third more when doing 
hard muscular work. Mental w r ork requires 

no more food than loafing. 

15. Eat when hungry, never because it is 
mealtime, or because invited to eat. Food 
must be well relished to be well digested. 

According to Pawlow, “appetite juice,” 
which is produced by stimulation of the 
nerves of taste by palatable food, is the most 
important factor in gastric digestion. 

16. Cane-sugar should be eaten only in 
small quantity. Large quantities cause 
acidity and give rise to gastric catarrh and 
indigestion. Sweet fruits, such as raisins 
and figs, and malt sugar, are natural and 
wholesome sweets and may be eaten freely. 
Honey is wholesome, but does not agree 
with all persons. 


HOW TO LIVE 


243 


17. A sedentary life tends to produce in¬ 
testinal inactivity; that is, slow digestion and 
constipation; hence, the ordinary daily bill 
of fare should supply an adequate amount 
of laxative foodstuffs, fresh sweet fruits 
(not preserves), especially figs and prunes, 
acid fruits and fruit juices, fresh vegetables, 
whole-grain preparations and especially 
wheat in some form. 

18. Some fresh, uncooked food should be 
eaten at each meal in the form of fresh 
fruits or fruit juices, lettuce, raw cabbage, 
cucumber and other salads. 

19. Fresh vegetables and whole-grain 
cereals are needed to supply lime, potash 
and other salts. The blood and all living 
cells require these salts, as do the teeth and 
the bones. The free use of cane-sugar and 
meats leads to lime starvation, because of 
the deficiency in lime. Avoid white bread. 
Eat baked potatoes freely, and greens of all 
sorts. 

Recent experiments by Hindhede and 
others have shown that the potato is one of 
the most useful of all our vegetables, and 


244 


NEURASTHENIA 


that it may advantageously replace bread 
and other cereals to a very large extent. 
Cereals contain excessive acids. Persons 
who have a tendency to rheumatism, 
Bright’s disease, skin affections, and espe¬ 
cially neurasthenics should make the potato 
a staple article of diet. The diet of such 
persons should consist chiefly of fruits and 
vegetables. Use bran every meal, other 
cereals sparingly. 

20. Avoid complicated dishes and great 
variety at one meal, but vary the diet from 
day to day, as the appetite may indicate. 

Regularity of Meal Hours 

21. Eat at regular hours, so as to main¬ 
tain the normal intestinal rhythm which se¬ 
cures the daily movements of the bowels. 
Rather than omit a meal entirely, eat some 
fruit or a cake of colax (agar-agar) with 
fruit juice, or some other simple nutrient 
which will keep up the peristaltic procession 
and rhythm. 

Taking food into the stomach when food 
is already present is about the worst 
insult that can be offered to this greatly 


HOW TO LIVE 


243 


abused organ. The absence of appetite may 
be ordinarily regarded as an indication that 
the stomach still retains some portions of 
the previous meal. 

Hunger, as shown by Cannon, is due to 
the contraction of the empty stomach upon 
itself; hence, hunger is not ordinarily ex¬ 
perienced so long as food is present in the 
stomach. 

22. The best meal plan is to eat twice a 
day. Eight to nine A. M. and three to four 
P. M. are the best hours; or eleven A. M. 
and six P. M., if the retiring hour is neces¬ 
sarily very late. When breakfast is omit¬ 
ted or taken very late, it is an excellent plan 
to take some fruit soon after rising. 

23. If three meals are eaten, the heart¬ 
iest meal should be taken at midday. The 
breakfast should be substantial, the evening 
meal very light, especially avoiding pastry, 
fats, rich sauces and hearty foods. The 
evening meal should consist chiefly of ripe 
or cooked fruits, liquid foods and such 
cereals as boiled rice or cereal flakes. 

24. Avoid iced foods and drinks. Very 


246 


NEURASTHENIA 


cold foods or drinks should never be taken 
freely, and must always be swallowed so 
slowly and in such small quantities that they 
will be warmed before reaching the stom¬ 
ach. 

25. Chew every morsel until free from 
coarse particles. Thorough chewing de¬ 
velops “appetite juice” in the stomach and 

thus combats intestinal autointoxication, a 

• 

most prolific cause of disease. Careful mas¬ 
tication affords opportunity for the nutri¬ 
tive instincts to select the food and food ele¬ 
ments adapted to the body needs, and to say, 
“Enough,” at the proper moment. Hence, 
give preference to dry foods. Sip liquid 
foods slowly, taking care to insalivate thor¬ 
oughly. 

26. Dismiss work, worries, business cares 
and annoyances while eating. Good cheer 
promotes good digestion. Anger, worry, ir¬ 
ritation, stop digestion. 

27. What we eat today will be walking 
about and talking tomorrow; hence all foods 
not known to be pure and wholesome should 
be avoided. Especially avoid rich and so- 


HOW TO LIVE 


247 


called hearty (hard to digest) foods, and 
such indigestibles as pickles, green olives and 
preserves. 

28. Take three or four pints of water a 
day, including liquid food. 

Do not drink much at, nor immediately 
after, meals. Take a few sips whenever 
thirsty. 

Drink a glassful of water on rising in the 
morning, on retiring at night, an hour be¬ 
fore each meal, and two or three hours after 

eating. Exercise for Health 

29. Live as much as possible in the open 
air. If compelled to work indoors, be sure 
that the living and work rooms have an 
ample, continual supply of fresh air. The 
lower the temperature the better, so long as 
the body is kept comfortably warm. Tem¬ 
peratures above 70° F. are depressing. The 
breathing of cold air is a continuous tonic. 

30. Working in the open air is one of the 
best forms of exercise, especially working in 
the garden, digging, hoeing, pruning, etc. 
Do some good, hard muscular work every 
day, enough to produce slight muscular 


248 


NEURASTHENIA 


fatigue and free perspiration; but avoid ex¬ 
haustion. Exercise out of doors is most bene¬ 
ficial and swimming in water at 76° to 78° F. 
is the best of all special health exercises. 
Rapid walking and hill climbing are excel¬ 
lent; stair climbing is good. 

31. One need not degenerate physically 
because his occupation is sedentary. Always 
sit erect, with chest held high and the small 
of the back supported. Sit as little as pos¬ 
sible. Standing and lying are more natural 
and healthful positions than sitting. One 
may exercise while sitting at work by deep 
breathing and by stiffening the muscles of 
first one limb a few seconds, then the other. 
All the muscles in the body may be thus 
exercised. 

32. Deep breathing aids digestion, en¬ 
courages liver and bowel action, develops 
the lungs and purifies the blood. The only 
directions needed are: Hold the chest high 
and breathe as deeply as you can ten or 
twenty times every hour, or oftener. The 
best “breath” gymnastics are swimming, hill 


HOW TO LIVE 


249 


or stair climbing, and rapid walking or run¬ 
ning. Always breathe through the nose. 

33. In walking, always hold the chest 
high and carry it well to the front. Swing 
the arms moderately, and walk fast enough 
to hasten the breathing a little. Nine miles 
of walking a day at the rate of three miles 
an hour is the necessary amount for adults. 
Most housekeepers and laborers do more. 

34. Develop the abdominal muscles by 
some simple exercises, such as walking on 
tip-toe, with chest held high, or running 
round the room on all fours; or lie on the 
back, hold the legs straight and raise them 
to the perpendicular, repeating thirty to 
forty times three times a day. 

Lying on the back, raise the body from the 
lying to the sitting position, with the hands 
placed upon the back of the neck. Repeat 
ten to twenty times three times a day, gradu¬ 
ally increasing the number. 

35. If the abdominal muscles are weak¬ 
ened, and the lower abdomen sags, an ab¬ 
dominal supporter should be worn when on 
the feet, until the muscles have been strength¬ 
ened. 


250 


NEURASTHENIA 


The Toilet 

36. Cleanse the mouth and teeth thor¬ 
oughly before and after each meal, on rising 
and on retiring. A foul tongue and decaying 
teeth indicate mouth infection, intestinal 
autointoxication, and general low resistance. 

37. Bathe daily at night in warm 
weather. Twice a week in winter, take a 
warm cleansing bath before retiring. Apply 
fine vaseline or lanolin cream (see page 97) 
after the bath if the skin is dry. 

38. Take a short cold bath every morning 
on rising. This is an excellent tonic. Or 
take a cool air bath morning and night, rub¬ 
bing the skin with a dry towel. 

If the skin is irritated, apply Doctor Bulk- 
ley’s skin cream. (See page 97.) 

39. The hands, nose and scalp also re¬ 
quire sanitary attention. 

Rub the scalp with the finger tips dipped 
in cold water twice a day. For the hands, 
use a good soap and rinse well with soft 
water. If rough, apply skin cream (see 
page 97). 

40. The bowels should move thoroughly 


HOW TO LIVE 


251 


three times a day, most naturally soon after 
each meal. Many persons move the bowels 
soon after rising. Train the bowels by try¬ 
ing to move them on rising and after meals. 

Most people whose bowels move only 
once daily are suffering from intestinal 
autointoxication. The bowel movements are 
belated, being constantly two or three days 
in arrears. 

Food is the natural laxative, hence con¬ 
stipation must be chiefly combated by regu¬ 
lation of the diet. The food may be as¬ 
sisted by use of agar-agar (Japanese isin¬ 
glass), and by the use of sterilized bran. Lu¬ 
brication of the intestinal tract is also very 
advantageous; this may be accomplished by 
the use of specially purified white Russian 
paraffin oil. 

The public should be warned that some 
paraffin oils are not safe. Only white Rus¬ 
sian oil should be used, and, according to 
Ross, this must be specially purified to free 
it from certain harmful elements. 

The most laxative foods are those contain¬ 
ing the largest amount of cellulose. Acid 


252 


NEURASTHENIA 


foods are also to some degree laxative. The 
following table shows the amounts of cellu¬ 
lose found in different foodstuffs: 

Cellulose Content of Common Foodstuffs 


No. of grains 

Vegetables of cellulose 

in one ounce 

Asparagus . 5.2 

Beans . 4 

Beets . 5.25 

Brussels Sprouts . 7.85 

Cabbage . 9.2 

Carrot (raw) .. 4.9 

Cauliflower (steamed) . 4.55 

Celery (raw) . 7 

Cucumber (raw) . 3.9 

Green Peas . 9.35 

Kohlrabi (raw) . 7.75 

Lettuce . 3.65 

Onion . 3.55 

Parsnips .. 8.65 

Peas (dried) . 28.5 

Potato (baked) . 5.45 

Pumpkin . 6.1 

Spinach . 4.65 

Tomatoes . 4.20 

Turnip . 6.6 


No. of grains 


Fruits 

Per cent 
Cellulose 

of cellulose 
in one ounce 

Prunes (cooked) . 

. 2 

10 

Apples . 

. 1 

5 

Pears . 

. 3 

15 

Peaches . 

. 1 

5 

Plums .. 

. 1.5 

7.5 

Cherries . 

. 2 

10 

Raspberries, red . 

. 7.4 

37 

Strawberries . 

. 2 

10 






























HOW TO LIVE 


253 


Fruits 

Per cent 

No. of grains 
of cellulose 


Cellulose 

in one ounce 

Currants . 


23 

Huckleberries . 

12.2 

61 

Blackberries . 

5 

25 

Grapes . 

1.5 

7.5 

Raisins . 

1.7 

7.5 

Raisins (stewed) . 

1.7 

7.4 

Oranges . 


10 

Bananas . 


1.5 

Figs . 

4.5 

22.5 

Apricots . 

2.5 

12.5 

Gooseberries (stewed) . 

3.5 

17.5 

Cranberries . 

5 

25 

Cereals 

Wheat (cooked) . 

2 

10 

Wheat Grits (cooked) . 

1 

8 

Rolled Wheat (cracked) . 

2 

9 

Fine Flour . 

0.3 

1.5 

Graham Flour . 

2 

10 

Oatmeal (cooked) . 

. 10 

44 

Barley (cooked) . 

4 

20 

Polished Rice . 

0.4 

2 

Unpolished Rice . 

0.75 

3.75 

Rye (small) . 

3 

15 

Corn Meal . 

2 

10 

Corn Flakes. 

2 

10 

Beans (dried) . 

8 

40 

Peas (dried) . 

5.7 

28.5 

Lentils . 

4 

20 

Sterilized Bran . 

. 40 

200 

Graham Bread . 

1.2 

6 

Whole Wheat Bread. 

1 

5 

In some cases of obstinate constipation it 

is necessary to train the bowels 

to normal 

activity by introducing into the colon, within 

an hour after breakfast, 

one or two pints of 

water at 8o° F. Hot water relaxes the bowel, 
































254 


NEURASTHENIA 


but cold water improves the tone of the in¬ 
testinal muscles and aids in restoring normal 
sensibility, which is often lost in cases of 
chronic constipation. 

Suggestions 

For inactive bowels, knead the abdomen 
well with the hands night and morning, 
especially the lower side parts. Eat laxative 
foods, especially fruits, coarse vegetables, 
whole-grain cereals and bran, at each meal. 
Eat an orange or an apple on rising and re¬ 
tiring. Exercise the abdominal muscles. 
Visit the closet regularly after each meal to 
train the bowels. When a “call” is experi¬ 
enced, respond immediately. Five minutes 
may postpone action indefinitely. Support 
the feet on a stool before the closet seat. 

Putrid, foul-smelling stools are an indica¬ 
tion of intestinal autointoxication, and are 
due to an excess of protein in the form of 
meat or eggs, or to decay from stasis or 
stagnation in some part of the colon. Such a 
condition always breeds disease and indi¬ 
cates need for a change of flora. 


HOW TO LIVE 


255 


The Neurasthenic Needs Much Sleep and 

Rest 

41. Sleep eight hours each night. If not 
strong, take a nap before dinner. Growth, 
assimilation, and repair, are most active dur¬ 
ing sleep. 

42. Surroundings at night should be 
quiet. Sleep amid noise is not normally re¬ 
freshing. On the side is the best position 
during sleep for most persons. Change 
sides. 

43. The bed should be neither too hard 
nor too soft. Avoid feathers. The covers 
should be dry, warm, light and porous. 
Avoid overheating by excess of clothing. 
Use a thin pillow and discard bolsters. 

44. Make the weekly Sabbath a day of 
complete rest from work. Spend most of 
the day out of doors if possible. Take a half 
day off for an outing in the middle of the 

week. Clothing 

45. The clothing should be loose, com¬ 
fortable, light and porous. Restrictive cloth¬ 
ing is necessarily damaging, for the trunk of 
the body is continually changing in form and 


256 


NEURASTHENIA 


size. Wear porous underclothing next to 
the skin. Cotton is best, linen next best. 

46. Avoid waterproofs, except for tem¬ 
porary protection. Clothe the extremities so 
as to keep them warm and dry. Avoid too 
much clothing. 

Mental Hygiene 

47. Don’t worry. Cheer up! Worry 
wears worse than work; worry destroys, 
work produces; worry wastes energy, work 
utilizes it; worry subtracts, work multiplies; 
worry dwarfs, depresses, confuses, kills; 
worry stops digestion, paralyzes the bowels, 
slows the heart; worry is known to cause 
diabetes, goitre, neurasthenia and gout; 
worry anticipates failure and creates dis¬ 
aster. Worry is a mind malady—a mental 
unsoundness. (See page 183.) 

48. Do not become self-centered. Avoid 
thinking or talking about ailments or other 
unpleasant things. Cultivate altruistic ideals 
and wholesome and optimistic thoughts. 

49. Exercise self-control and restraint in 



HOW TO LIVE 


257 


all things. Work uses energy moderately; 
the passions and the emotions, enormously. 

50. Take a vacation when you dream 
about your work. 

Poisons to be Avoided 

51. Avoid poison-containing foods. Tea, 
coffee, chocolate and cocoa contain poison¬ 
ous alkaloids which impair digestion, dam¬ 
age the nerves and promote disease of the 
liver, kidneys and blood-vessels. Cereal 
beverages and hot or cold fruit juices are 
wholesome substitutes for tea and coffee. 

Condiments—mustard, pepper, pepper- 
sauce, cayenne, capsicum, vinegar, hot, irri¬ 
tating sauces, and spices of all kinds—must 
be wholly discarded. They irritate the 
stomach and cause gastric and intestinal ca¬ 
tarrh and gastric ulcer, colitis, and damage 
to the liver and kidneys. 

52. Discard tobacco, alcoholic beverages, 
“tonic drugs” and other nerve foolers. They 
are deadly poisons which lessen efficiency 
and shorten life. 

53. Avoid nostrums and patent medi- 


258 


NEURASTHENIA 


cines. The habitual use of any drug is harm¬ 
ful. 

54. The best foods in the order of ex¬ 
cellence are: fresh, ripe fruits, cooked fresh 
fruits, cooked dried fruits, nuts, graham 
bread, rice, zwieback, toasted wheat flakes, 
potato, cauliflower, carrots, greens and other 
fresh vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, 
honey, meltose, malted nuts, yogurt butter¬ 
milk, sterilized milk and cream, peas, beans, 
lentils, raised bread, sterilized butter. 

55. If “bilious,” take several enemas, 
until the bowels are thoroughly emptied. 
Drink two or three quarts of water daily. 
Eat freely of fresh fruits and green vege¬ 
tables. Avoid fats almost wholly for a few 
days, and diminish the amount of fats in the 
regular diet. Discard milk. Make the 
bowels move three or four times a day. 

56. Eat, drink, sleep, exercise,—do all 
for efficiency. Said Paul, “Whether ye eat 
or drink, whatsoever ye do, do all for the 
glory of God.” 


HOW TO LIVE 


259 


Biologic Living 

A man can do credit to his Creator and 
make the most of himself only in following 
the natural order of life intended for him. 

Our supreme obligation to obey the nat¬ 
ural order is generally ignored. The great 
biologic laws, under the control of which 
man has been developed during countless 
ages, are as immutable and as unescapable 
as the force of gravitation. The principles 
which rule our physical being are the most 
fundamental elements of human life. Most 
human maladies and miseries are the nat¬ 
ural result of our failure to recognize this 
profound truth. Hunger, thirst, desire for 
air, sunlight, and other bodily appetites are 
primitive instincts which, if followed im¬ 
plicitly and rationally, would result in the 
highest degree of physical vigor and ef¬ 
ficiency. 

But we pervert every instinct. 

We affect habits that are wholly foreign 
to our biologic requirements and adapta¬ 
tions. Instinct calls us to live in the open. 
We imprison ourselves in offices, factories 


260 


NEURASTHENIA 


and air-tight bedrooms. The result is the 
great white plague, tuberculosis. 

Instinct calls for water to cool and cleanse 
the vital machinery. We guzzle beer, wine, 
whiskey, tea, coffee and other intoxicants, 
and suffer countless miseries in consequence. 

Instinct and biologic law teach us to select 
a bill of fare identical with that of our 
cousins, the anthropoids—the chimpanzee, 
the orang and the gorilla, who with man 
form the family of primates, one of the 
most ancient and most remarkable of all 
animal races. But instead of contenting our¬ 
selves with the natural products of the 
earth—fruits, nuts, soft grains and tender 
shoots—we have unlawfully and unbiolog- 
ically invaded the food stores of nearly 
every other species of animal. We eat fish 
with the cormorant; wild game with the lion 
and the eagle; we gnaw bones with the dog 
and nibble cheese with the larvae of flies and 
other insects. We gulp down oysters and 
clams with the sea gull and the pelican and 
putrescent meats (prime beef) with the car¬ 
rion crow and the buzzard, and the result 


HOW TO LIVE 


261 


is universal dyspesia. The human digestive 
machine cannot deal with such a miscellan¬ 
eous assortment of foodstuffs. No single 
stomach can digest the bill of fare of all 
creation. 

Our fundamental adaptations and nutri¬ 
tive needs we cannot change. We must bow 
to the Omnipotent Forces which made us as 
we are, and conform our lives to the cosmic 
order. We must keep step with the music of 
the spheres to which the old Greek phil¬ 
osophers listened; we must keep ourselves 
“in tune with the infinite.” This is the key to 
the normal, healthful life. 


Simple Remedies for Neurasthenic 

Miseries 


The treatment of individual neurasthenic 
symptoms is not in most cases absolutely 
necessary for the cure of the disease, since 
the individual manifestations of the malady 
will gradually disappear as recovery pro¬ 
gresses, provided the fundamental causes 
are removed. Too close attention to indi¬ 
vidual symptoms sometimes serves to keep 
them alive. Not infrequently an ache or a 
pain of some other description which has 
disappeared and been forgotten by the pa¬ 
tient will reappear in full force when 
brought back to the patient’s consciousness 
by asking him about it. 

Nevertheless certain symptoms are some¬ 
times so distressing that attention must be 
given them. Not infrequently the patient 
has formed a drug habit of some sort, alco¬ 
hol, tobacco, coffee, morphia, or some much- 
vaunted nostrum. The first step toward a 


262 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


263 


cure must be to get rid of the drug habit, 
and in accomplishing this, drugless remedies 
for the relief of the miseries from which the 
neurasthenic suffers may render most im¬ 
portant service. It is important to remem¬ 
ber, however, that the symptom is not the 
disease, and while the relief of the symptom 
may help tow r ard the control and cure of the 
disease, other more fundamental measures 
should be employed, as has been set forth in 
the preceding pages. 

Care must also be taken to avoid exagger¬ 
ating in the patient’s mind the importance of 
‘‘symptoms.” He must be encouraged to 
set his will at work against morbid “sug¬ 
gestion,” so that he may not become “symp¬ 
tom ridden,” and to cultivate normality, by 
constant assertion of his right to be well; 
and by wholesome, mind-filling diversions 
and occupations, especially such delightful 
employments as light farming, gardening, 
botanizing and other out-of-door occupa¬ 
tions. Basketry, weaving, clay modeling, 
wood sloyd, and other manual arts and 
crafts, have aided many neurasthenics in 


264 


NEURASTHENIA 


their efforts to get a new grip on life, and to 
escape from the fetters of chronic invalid¬ 
ism. 

The remedies suggested in this chapter 
are nearly all such as may be employed by 
any intelligent person in his own home. 
Notwithstanding their simplicity, they are 
wonderfully potent and have proved success¬ 
ful in the treatment of many hundreds of 
cases of neurasthenia of every type and de¬ 
gree. 

The symptomatic treatment of neuras¬ 
thenia which is dwelt upon in this chapter is 
in no small degree curative as well as pallia¬ 
tive. Physiologic remedies afford relief by 
mitigating or removing causes, and so by 
repetition become effective as curative meas¬ 
ures. The following measures are adapted 
to all classes of neurasthenics and may be 
employed as indicated in connection with the 
more general measures suggested in preced¬ 
ing chapters: 

Insomnia 

Inability to sleep is one of the most dis¬ 
concerting symptoms from which the neu- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


265 


rasthenic suffers. Long, restless nights ex¬ 
haust still further his weakened nerve cen¬ 
ters, and so aggravate all his sufferings. 
The temptation to resort to the use of 
some sleep-producing drug becomes almost 
irresistible. There may be instances in 
which the temporary use of a hypnotic is ad¬ 
visable, but the chances are ten to one that 
the dose of the drug will very soon have 
to be increased and that later on it will lose 
its effect and the insomnia will be found to 
be aggravated. 

Fortunately, drugs are rarely necessary to 
produce sleep, except when general anes¬ 
thesia is required for surgical purposes. 
Every case of insomnia may be relieved 
without the use of sleep-producing drugs. 
This has been demonstrated a thousand 
times in the great insane asylums of this and 
other countries in the treatment of the very 
obstinate insomnia present in most cases of 
acute mania. 

For particulars of the physiologic 
methods of relieving insomnia see tl^e chap¬ 
ter on sleep. 


266 


NEURASTHENIA 


Drowsiness 

The neurasthenic who cannot sleep at 
night is often afflicted with an almost ir¬ 
resistible drowsiness during the day, espe¬ 
cially after meals. Inability to keep awake 
in church or at a lecture is not an uncom¬ 
mon symptom. This symptom is especially 
common in visceral neurasthenics, who often 
suffer from drowsiness when sitting or 
standing, but become wide awake on assum¬ 
ing the horizontal position. These persons 
suffer from lack of vasomotor regulation, 
and so are at the mercy of gravitation— 
when upright the blood runs into the dilated 
abdominal vessels; when horizontal, the 
blood runs back to the head, so that the 
brain is alternately drained of blood and 
overcharged. 

In certain cases the drowsiness persists 
after lying down, doubtless the result of the 
influence of toxins. After meals absorption 
is much more rapid than at other times, ow¬ 
ing to the greatly increased rate of blood 
movement through the abdominal vessels, so 
that the absorption of toxins is greatly in- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


267 


creased. When the poisons produced hap¬ 
pen to be of a sort which benumb and par¬ 
alyze the nerve cells, drowsiness and stupor 
are prominent symptoms. 

For the first class of cases the patient 
should rest in a horizontal position for half 
an hour or even an hour after meals. For 
the second class of patients, those who are 
disposed to sleep lying down, moderate ex¬ 
ercise for half an hour after eating is to be 
recommended. By exercise the heart action 
is stimulated, the blood-pressure is raised, 
the action of the lungs, skin and kidneys 
increased, and so the disturbing poisons are 
destroyed and eliminated. If the patient 
yields to the disposition to sleep after meals 
he falls into a heavy slumber from which 
he awakens feeling weary, dull and in no 
way benefited. Deep breathing exercises, 
light calisthenics, the vibrating chair, ab¬ 
dominal kneading and percussion—all are 
useful measures. 

For temporary relief, bathing the face 
and neck with very hot or cold water, or 
with hot and cold water in alternation, are 


268 


NEURASTHENIA 


most efficient measures. Drinking half a 
glassful of hot water and lying upon the 
face over a pillow for a few minutes, avoid¬ 
ing sleep, are simple measures which often 
afford prompt, if temporary, relief. 

Mental Depression—the “Blues” 

While all neurasthenics are not subject to 
the blues, or spells of depression, it is 
perhaps safe to say that persons who suf¬ 
fer much and often from the blues are al¬ 
most always chronic neurasthenics. Men¬ 
tal depression is one of the many toxic ef¬ 
fects from which these patients suffer. The 
foul breath, coated tongue and loathsome 
stools noted in these cases are abundant evi¬ 
dence of the toxic origin of the “blues.” 
The adoption of thoroughgoing measures 
for changing the intestinal flora, and thus 
suppressing the development and absorption 
of toxins, is quickly followed by a change in 
the mental state, which is a delicate indica¬ 
tor of the degree of intensity of the intes¬ 
tinal toxemia. 

Tonic baths, cheerful society, the cultiva¬ 
tion of an optimistic attitude of mind, are 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


269 


necessary aids to recovery, which must not 
be neglected. It is especially important that 
the patient shall recognize the fact that his 
mental state is simply a reflection of a phy¬ 
sical condition. He must thoroughly under¬ 
stand and appreciate the fact that the ‘‘blue 
devils” which stare him in the face and 
threaten him with every possible calamity 
are really nothing more than ghosts and 
hobgoblins bred by the putrefaction pro¬ 
cesses active in his colon. 

Fully convinced of this important patho¬ 
logical truth he will cease to encourage the 
morbid mental state by dwelling upon his 
melancholy vaporings, and much less will 
he talk of his despondency, except briefly to 
his physician. 

A fit of the “blues” is as much an intoxi¬ 
cation as a drunken spree, and a bad at¬ 
tack may disqualify a person for wise and 
efficient action as thoroughly as alcoholic in¬ 
toxication. A person subject to the blues 
should in his most lucid and optimistic mo¬ 
ments resolve to make no important de¬ 
cision, and to set a special guard over his 


270 


NEURASTHENIA 


conduct, while under the influence of the 
flood of poisons to which the condition is 
due. The real cure for the blues lies in 
prevention by removing causes. 

The best mental remedy for the blues 
is to turn the face resolutely toward better 
things and wait for the poison wave to pass 
over, just as one holds his breath in the surf 
until the foaming crest has passed on. 

When the unbalance is due to a deficiency 
of muscle juice, an efficient remedy always 
at hand is exercise. Almost any kind of 
bodily exercise is good, but those which 
bring the large muscles of the legs and trunk 
into active use and set the lungs into full 
play are of greatest value. The exercise 
must be vigorous enough to produce pers¬ 
piration. There is nothing like a good 
sweat induced by hard muscular work—a 
fast game of tennis, a tramp in the woods, 
or best of all, work in the soil in the care of 
a garden, to dissipate the blues. 

Exercise limbers up the sinews of the 
mind as well as those of the limbs. It is 
best of all remedies for the sort of depres- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


271 


sion which grows out of an idle life and 
over-feeding. 

But there is another form of depression 
in which the cause is not a deficiency of 
muscle secretion, but an excess of adrenal 
secretion, the result of the action of certain 
poisons. 

Fidgets 

The nervous sensations of the lower ex¬ 
tremities which give rise to constant move¬ 
ment, or so-called “fidgets,” are usually re¬ 
moved by such measures as hot and cold ap¬ 
plications to the spine, and the cold spinal 
douche followed by massage, and usually 
disappear very soon after the patient has 
begun to improve as a result of general 
treatment. Very pronounced temporary re¬ 
lief is often secured by applications of the 
high-frequency current, or so-called static 
breeze. 

Numbness and Other Paresthesias 

Many neurasthenics suffer greatly from 
sensations in the extremities, which give the 
impressions of impending paralysis, and so 
become a source of incessant apprehension 


272 


NEURASTHENIA 


and worry. Hot flashes, cold sensations, 
prickling, smarting, “electric thrills” and a 
great variety of other perversions of sensa¬ 
tion are experienced by certain classes of 
neurasthenics. While all these symptoms are 
sometimes experienced by those suffering 
from organic nervous diseases, their occur¬ 
rence in neurasthenia has no other signifi¬ 
cance than a disturbed circulation of the 
nerve trunks. 

Most paresthesias may be relieved, tem¬ 
porarily at least, by very simple measures 
that any patient can himself apply. One of 
the most effective means is sponging with 
very hot water. The temperature of the 
water should be as hot as can be borne in 
order to get the best effects. Massage, the 
neutral bath, a short electric light bath fol¬ 
lowed by a cold towel rub or a salt glow 
are very highly effective measures. Elec¬ 
tricity, especially the high frequency, is mar¬ 
velously effective in some cases. A radical 
cure of these distressing symptoms is only 
to be found in a thoroughgoing eradication 
of the fundamental causes of the disease 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


273 


which may be present in any individual 
case. 

Palpitation of the Heart 

This symptom is exceedingly common in 
neurasthenics, especially in neurasthenic chil¬ 
dren and youths. The heart movements are 
sometimes exceedingly violent and very 
rapid. The writer recalls a case in which the 
rate of the heart was found by examination 
with the sphygmograph to be three hundred 
beats per minute. 

A characteristic of the neurasthenic’s pal¬ 
pitation is that it is produced by very slight 
causes, quite insufficient to produce excite¬ 
ment of the heart in well persons. The pa¬ 
tient should rest in bed with a cold com¬ 
press consisting of a folded towel wrung 
out of cold water over the heart. The 
bowels should be emptied by an enema at 
8o° F. 

Pseudo- Angina 

Neurasthenic patients often suffer from 
attacks of pain and constriction in the region 
of the heart and reaching into the left 
shoulder and arm, sometimes reaching even 


274 


NEURASTHENIA 


to the left leg. When the attack is severe, 
the distress may be so great as greatly to 
terrify the patient. The pulse becomes 
small and feeble, the extremities become 
cold, the heart beats very feebly, the face is 
pale and livid. These attacks so closely re¬ 
semble attacks of real angina-pectoris, the 
result of degenerative changes in the ar¬ 
teries of the heart, that they are frequently 
mistaken for this condition. The attack 
passes off in ten or fifteen minutes. The 
face becomes flushed with a sensation of 
heat. The sense of constriction and other 
distressing symptoms disappear. These at¬ 
tacks are due to disturbances of the vasa- 
motor centers, causing contraction of the 
small arteries, an exaggeration, perhaps, of 
the same condition which in minor manifes¬ 
tations appears as simple coldness of the 
hands and feet. 

Attacks of this kind may be very quickly 
relieved by a brief application of hot fomen¬ 
tations over the heart. In some cases a fo¬ 
mentation to the back and the neck is 
more effective, and still more promptly 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


275 


beneficial in some cases is a short hot full 
bath. The temperature of the bath should 
be ioo° F. at the beginning and rapidly 
raised to 105° or iio° F. The duration of 
the bath should be not more than three to 
five minutes. Drinking a tumblerful of hot 
liquid, such as a glass of hot water or hot 
lemonade, is often very useful. 

Mind Wandering 

Mental confusion, weakness of the will 
and general exaggeration of all neurasthenic 
symptoms are legitimate results of the hyp¬ 
notic methods in neurasthenia. What the 
neurasthenic needs in the way of psycho¬ 
pathic treatment is a strengthening of his 
will by the normal exercise of his own voli¬ 
tion. Such education of the will may be ac¬ 
complished in all cases by the patient him¬ 
self if he has sufficient resolution and 
strength of character left to take himself in 
hand in a thoroughgoing way. In bad cases, 
however, the aid and advice of a wise physi¬ 
cian is necessary. 

It is interesting to note the favorable 
psychic effect of the physiologic method of 


276 


NEURASTHENIA 


dealing with this disease. In carrying out a 
systematic course of treatment, such as is 
essential for the best results in pronounced 
cases, the patient must undergo at every 
hour of the day some special treatment or 
execute some task in obeying his physician’s 
prescription. This in itself is an excellent 
psychic training and has a decided curative 
effect. The neurasthenic patient who in fol¬ 
lowing the instruction of his physician gets 
up in the morning and before breakfast 
takes a cold shower bath, or has an ice rub 
to his spine or takes a plunge in cool water 
or a cold spinal douche, receives a psychic 
stimulus as well as a physical uplift, and 
each time that he meets his morning ap¬ 
pointment, notwithstanding his natural re¬ 
luctance, he gains a measure of mental and 
moral control over his impulses and so 
makes progress toward the reorganization 
of his mental faculties. 

Headache 

The headache of neurasthenia is usually 
toxic in character or the result of loss of 
sleep. Attacks of migraine, when once be- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


277 


gun, cannot be abruptly stopped, although 
the patient’s suffering may be greatly 
mitigrated and the attack may be abbrevi¬ 
ated. The time to cure an attack of mi¬ 
graine is before it begins, and this is true of 
headache in general. A thorough bowel 
movement three times a day, a careful ad¬ 
herence to an anti-toxic diet, excluding both 
milk and eggs as well as meat, are most 
effective measures for combating so-called 
“sick headache.” In these cases the most 
important of all measures is change of the 
intestinal flora. How this is to be done is 
told in detail elsewhere in this work. Tem¬ 
porary relief from some forms of headache 
may generally be obtained by alternating 
hot and cold applications to the back of 
the neck, or application of heat to the back 
of the neck and cold to the forehead or ver¬ 
tex. In cases in which the face is pale, hot 
applications are most effective. When the 
face is flushed, cold applications are indica¬ 
ted. The same measures are also effective 
means of relieving neckache and vertex 


278 


NEURASTHENIA 


headache, from which many neurasthenics 
suffer. 

Backache 

Backache is usually interpreted to mean 
some’affection of the spine, but this is rarely 
true. The worst forms of spinal disease are 
not characterized by pain in the back. The 
same is true of Bright’s disease. Only cal¬ 
culi and inflammations or infections of the 
kidneys or their surroundings are likely to 
give rise to pain in the back. There are 
many forms of backache, some of which are 
the result of inflammation or other diseased 
conditions in the pelvis. Neurasthenic back¬ 
aches may be due to strain upon the sym¬ 
pathetic nerves, resulting from prolapse of 
the viscera, but in a great majority of cases 
the pain in the lower part of the back is 
due to colitis, an exceedingly common condi¬ 
tion in neurasthenics. Backache is often due 
to constipation. 

Neurasthenic backaches are generally as¬ 
sociated with a sensitive condition of the 
sympathetic ganglia, as shown by tenderness 
of the epigastrium when pressure is made 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


279 


with the fingers; or great sensitiveness is 
developed by pressure on either side of the 
umbilicus. It must be remembered also that 
neurasthenics are likely to be sufferers from 
rheumatism in some of its forms. Back¬ 
ache may be due to a rheumatic condition 
of the joint between the sacrum and hip- 
joint on one or both sides, the “sacro-iliac 
synchondrosis,” or the seat of the rheuma¬ 
tism may be the lumbar vertebrae. The true 
neurasthenic backache is a reflex pain due to 
visceral irritation. In such cases the pain 
often extends to the hips, and is not infre¬ 
quently felt in the legs, which in such cases 
are also subject to numb sensations. In these 
cases colitis is usually present. The pain is 
most common in the left side because the 
descending colon is the most common seat of 
colitis. 

How to Relieve Backache 

The backache of neurasthenia is gener¬ 
ally very promptly relieved by a hot fomen¬ 
tation, or alternating hot and hold applica¬ 
tions to the back. The application of light 
by means of the photophore or the rays of 


280 


NEURASTHENIA 


the arc lamp generally affords very prompt 
relief. This relief is at first temporary. 
Daily or tri-daily applications, continued for 
a few days or weeks, effect a cure by reliev¬ 
ing the visceral irritation to which the pain 
is found to be due. 

A hot bath, judicious massage of the back 
muscles, and local electric applications, espe¬ 
cially the application of the high-frequency 
current, are often effective means of relief. 

One of the most useful of all measures 
for relief of backache in neurasthenics is 
the abdominal supporter. This is espe¬ 
cially effective in the splanchnic neuras¬ 
thenics, who suffer most when on their feet. 
Ordinary abdominal bandages are of little 
use. A supporter, to be effective, must raise 
the lower abdomen, as may be done with 
the hands. For this purpose it is necessary 
that the supporter should be held in place 
with springs which operate like those of a 
spring truss. When properly constructed 
and accurately adjusted, the relief afforded 
by such a supporter is usually very great. 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


28! 


Eye Tire 

Numerous medical writers have laid great 
stress upon the importance of eye strain as a 
cause of neurasthenia. Certain writers have 
even found in eye strain the cause of various 
mental perversions and eccentricities to which 
numerous notable persons, artists, poets, mu¬ 
sicians and others have been observed to be 
subject. 

A common cause of eye strain is an error 
of refraction in one or both eyes, of such a 
nature that the delicate muscle within the 
eye, which adjusts the lens, is kept constantly 
at work in correcting, or attempting to cor¬ 
rect, the existing defect, and this overworks 
and congests the eye and so becomes a source 
of local and even general disturbance. 

Another cause of eye strain is want of bal¬ 
ance between the muscles which control the 
movements of the eyeball. 

Eye strain, or muscular asthenopia, is due 
to lack of balance in the muscles which con¬ 
trol the eyes., Each eye makes an inde¬ 
pendent image of the object looked at. For 
perfect vision it is necessary that these two 


282 


NEURASTHENIA 


images should be fused in one. This is ac¬ 
complished automatically by the nerve cen¬ 
ters which control the movements of the eye 
in vision. 

It will be readily seen that the instantan¬ 
eous adjustment of the muscles of the eye 
to produce perfect vision at the constantly 
varying distances at which objects are recog¬ 
nized is one of the most delicate and finely 
balanced of all the muscular activities of the 
body. The disturbance of this eye-balancing 
function gives rise to what is termed eye 
strain. When the action of the muscles is 
not such as to make a perfect fusion of 
images of objects, two objects are seen in¬ 
stead of one, and the effort to overcome 
this defect gives rise to pain and fatigue in 
the eyes and a variety of other symptoms, 
among which are blurred vision, inability to 
look long at an object, congestion and smart¬ 
ing of the eyes, headache, sometimes of the 
most severe type, such as migraine, giddi¬ 
ness and sensation of falling forward. Pal¬ 
pitation of the heart, even melancholia and 
epilepsy, have been attributed to eye strain. 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


283 


Other symptoms of eye strain are, chronic 
inflammation of the lids, inflammation of the 
structures of the eyeball and even cataract. 
Giddiness, nausea, vomiting, and even epi¬ 
lepsy, sometimes appear to be due to eye 
defects. 

There are many , medical authorities who 
believe that eye strain is one of the leading 
causes of neurasthenia. In our own opin¬ 
ion these writers place the cart before the 
horse. In other words, eye strain is more 
often a result of neurasthenia than the cause 
of it. There are several circumstances 
which confirm this view. An important fact 
is that the majority of persons who complain 
of eye strain in connection with neurasthenia 
have lived a greater part of their lives en¬ 
tirely free from eye symptoms, and by the 
aid of proper therapeutic measures their 
symptoms may be made to disappear. 

The writer has had under observation a 
considerable number of persons whose eyes 
have been operated upon numerous times by 
eye specialists for relief of eye strain and 
neurasthenia, but without favorable results. 


284 


NEURASTHENIA 


In a considerable number of these cases com¬ 
plete relief was obtained by the measures 
recommended in this work, and without any 
surgical procedures. Inability to use the 
eyes for any length of time in reading is a 
common symptom in neurasthenia. The 
truth seems to be that in many, if not all, 
cases of eye strain connected with neuras¬ 
thenia the real fault is in the nerve supply 
of the eye rather than in the muscles. The 
lowering of the nerve tone has rendered the 
eye muscles incapable of maintaining the nice 
balance required for perfect vision. When 
the general nerve tone is raised by the ap¬ 
plication of proper measures the eye symp¬ 
toms disappear. 

Doubtless there are cases in which the 
nervous disturbance arising from the eye 
defects is so great as to cause a waste of 
nervous energy and as a consequence the 
symptoms of brain-fag and neurasthenia. 
In every case in which there is reason to 
suspect eye strain as a cause of nervous ex¬ 
haustion, a skilled oculist should be con¬ 
sulted, and any eye defects which may be 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


285 


found present, must be remedied by the use 
of glasses or by other means. 

Bathing the eyes with very hot water is 
an excellent means of relieving the fatigue 
experienced by the subject of eye strain. Rest 
is also important, since much use of the eyes 
when symptoms of eye strain exist greatly 
aggravates the local affection and also the 
general nervous condition. An oculist 
should be consulted, and after careful tests 
it may be found possible to secure great re¬ 
lief by the wearing of suitable glasses. 

Neurasthenic Ears 

It is astonishing how sensitive the ear 
sometimes becomes in neurasthenic patients, 
especially neurasthenic women. Slight 
sounds which are scarcely noticeable by nor¬ 
mal people may be to such persons extremely 
painful. Usually the patient does not suffer 
when his mind is diverted, and in many cases 
ears which have been long coddled, to the 
inconvenience of an entire family or even a 
whole neighborhood, may lose their sensi¬ 
bility under drastic treatment by exposure 
to monotonous noises, such as the rattle of 


286 


NEURASTHENIA 


vehicles over a street pavement or the thun¬ 
der of rushing trains. 

The auditory symptoms will disappear 
with improvement of the patient’s condition. 
Temporary relief may be obtained by tightly 
stopping the ears with absorbent cotton 
smeared with paraffin. 

Cramps 

Cramps in the calves of the legs and other 
muscular groups, to which many neuras¬ 
thenics are subject, may be relieved by hot 
applications and massage. The spasm may 
be generally interrupted by grasping the limb 
between the hands and making firm pressure 
upon the knotted muscle. 

Trembling 

This symptom is frequently observed in 
neurasthenics, especially in very pronounced 
cases. The trembling is usually confined to 
the upper extremities and has the form of 
fine short oscillations of the hands and 
fingers, which is especially manifested when 
the patient is asked to hold out the hand 
with the fingers separated. The cold spinal 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


287 


douche and mechanical vibration are the best 
remedies. 

Cold Hands and Feet 

Many neurasthenics suffer almost con¬ 
stantly from coldness and often clamminess 
of the hands and feet. This symptom is 
most likely to appear soon after eating. It 
may also be induced by mental or nervous 
excitement. The cause is spasm of the 
blood-vessels of the extremities, due to irri¬ 
tation of the vasomotor centers of the spine. 
Temporary relief may be obtained by rub¬ 
bing or by alternating hot and cold applica¬ 
tions to the spine. The abdominal supporter 
sometimes affords complete relief by sus¬ 
taining the abdominal viscera and thus pre¬ 
venting reflex irritation of the vasomotor 
centers. The moist abdominal bandage 
should be worn at night. Fomentations and 
other hot applications to the abdomen les¬ 
sen the irritability of the sympathetic centers 
and are thus serviceable in overcoming this 
unpleasant symptom. 


288 


NEURASTHENIA 


Sweating Hands and Feet 

This symptom is due to disturbances of 
the vasomotor centers; that is, the centers 
which control the small blood-vessels. Hot 
and cold applications to the spine and hot 
and cold bathing of the hands and feet are 
very useful palliative measures, but a cure 
can be accomplished only by removing the 
cause through the use of the measures out¬ 
lined in preceding chapters. The disap¬ 
pearance of this symptom is very often one 
of the earliest indications of improvement. 

Heaviness, Pain and Gastric Discomforts 

after Meals 

These symptoms, very frequent in neuras¬ 
thenics, are best relieved by rest of half an 
hour or an hour in a horizontal resting posi¬ 
tion after eating. When the pain is intense, 
a bag filled with hot water should be ap¬ 
plied over the stomach. Deep breathing, 
with a sand bag resting on the abdomen, is 
also useful. Some patients find relief by 
lying upon the face over a pillow for half 
an hour after meals, taking frequent deep 
breaths in the meantime. 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


289 


Fits of Despondency, or the “Blues” 

Recent physiologic experiments indicate 
that the secretions of the thyroid and su¬ 
prarenal glands produce an effect upon the 
brain structures which predisposes the mind 
to fear, worry and depression. Another in¬ 
teresting and very important fact in this 
connection is that the products of muscle ac¬ 
tivity produce an opposite effect; thus idle¬ 
ness or neglect to develop the body naturally 
gives rise to effeminacy, lack of courage in 
the face of danger, and chronic fear, which 
manifests itself in the worry habit. In other 
words, a feeble muscular development pre¬ 
disposes to fear, while the hardihood and 
physical vigor which accompany well-devel¬ 
oped muscles include physical courage and 
mental fortitude, and hence constitute a most 
important and efficient protection against 
fear-thought, and a protection against fear¬ 
exciting and worry-producing emergencies. 

These interesting studies relating to the 
physiology of the internal glands have 
thrown great light upon our mental pro¬ 
cesses. It is now clearly shown that peace 


290 


NEURASTHENIA 


of mind, mental equipoise, and contentment, 
are by no means wholly due to psychic or 
moral influences, but are in fact largely based 
upon purely physical conditions. Optimism 
and mental equilibrium are really in large 
measure dependent upon a nice balance be¬ 
tween the adrenals and other internal secre¬ 
tions which are its physiologic complement. 
When this balance is disturbed, so that the 
adrenal secretion predominates, mental de¬ 
pression is one of the consequences. It is evi¬ 
dent that something more than psychotherapy 
or mental treatment is necessary for a real 
cure. The cause must be removed. The excess 
of adrenalin must be overcome. The balance 
of the internal secretions must be restored. 
Let us now consider how this may be done. 

A cardinal function of the adrenalin secre¬ 
tion is the destruction of poisons—not all 
poisons, but especially animal and vegetable 
poisons, the origin of w T hich may be either 
external to the body or internal. 

Among the active poisons which excite the 
adrenals to undue activity should be men¬ 
tioned first of all, tobacco, alcohol, tea and 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


291 


coffee, and other habit-forming drugs. This 
is the reason why the free use of these 
drugs is always followed by depression as 
soon as the narcotic influence of the drug 
has passed off. While the immediate or di¬ 
rect effect of the drug lasts, the depression 
is not felt, because the real condition is con¬ 
cealed by the narcotic influence upon the 
nerves of sensibility, but when this effect has 
passed off, the excess of adrenalin in the 
blood and tissue juices reveals its character¬ 
istic effects, and a fit of despondency or 
“blues” is experienced. 

These recently demonstrated facts are of 
very great practical importance, but other 
still more interesting and practical facts 
growing out of laboratory observations re¬ 
ferred to, are now to be mentioned. 

The poisons above named are introduced 
into the body by a voluntary act, but there 
are other poisons still more potent which are 
generated within the body and which pro¬ 
duce their effects in so insidious a manner 
that until recently their influence has been 
quite overlooked. These poisons originate 


292 


NEURASTHENIA 


in the colon through the action of germs 
upon certain elements of the food, causing 
putrefaction or decay. All foods which 
putrefy outside of the body will likewise 
putrefy in the body. Meats, fish and fowl, 
together with eggs, are the foods which en¬ 
courage putrefaction in the colon. Undi¬ 
gested remnants of these foodstuffs always 
find their way into the colon, where they 
quickly reach a condition of horrible putre¬ 
scence with the development of a flood of 
poisons; toxins, ptomaines, with noxious 
odors and poisonous pigments, which foul 
the breath, tint the skin a dingy hue; paint 
brown circles around the eyes and ugly spots 
upon the hands, and over-stimulate and ul¬ 
timately wear out the suprarenal capsules. 

This chronic toxemia is a necessary con¬ 
sequence of constipation, and explains the 
almost universal association of the “blues” 
with constipation. A person whose bowels 
move three times a day is almost immune 
against despondency. Optimism is easy when 
the blood is clean and the internal secretions 
are in normal balance. 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


293 


A bad posture, by causing undue accumu¬ 
lation of blood in the abdominal organs, may 
give rise to abnormal excitation of the adre¬ 
nals and an excess of their secretion, and so 
destroy the normal balance. A sedentary 
life may produce the same result. We all 
know the “heartening” effect of a brisk walk 
in the cool, crisp air of a frosty morning. 

Loss of sleep, the use of various drugs, and 
especially the free use of condiments may 
likewise cause overaction of the adrenals 
and depression of spirits. 

It thus appears that a lit of the blues 
and, in fact, all forms of despondency are 
not intangible mental states which may al¬ 
ways be cured by an effort of the will, or 
driven away by some sort of psychologic 
juggling, but are definite physical states 
which may be sucessfully combated by ra¬ 
tional and readily accessible means. 

Dietetic and other measures for combating 
constipation and autointoxication, and vari¬ 
ous forms of exercise are fully detailed else¬ 
where in this work. Here is an excellent 
prescription for a sudden attack of depres- 


294 


NEURASTHENIA 


sion, or a “blue” spell: Begin at night. 
Take only fruit tor supper, but plenty of it, 
three or four apples or as man) oranges, 
half a watermelon (do not swallow the 
pulp), a couple of canteloupes or a big piece 
of casaba melon. 

At bedtime drink one or two glasses of 
water and take a long warm bath or neutral 
bath (ioo° F. for five minutes, then cool to 
98° to 94 0 F., never more nor less). Con¬ 
tinue the bath for half an hour or until de¬ 
cidedly drowsy, then dry quickly and go to 
bed without cooling off. This plan will en¬ 
sure sound sleep, which is very essential. 
Sleep at least eight or nine hours, on a sleep¬ 
ing porch or with windows widely opened. 

On rising in the morning, exercise until 
vigorous perspiration is produced. Now take 
a “surf bath” (see page 95) and row at 
least a hundred strokes, finishing with the 
water at pipe temperature. Dry and dress 
quickly and don’t hunt around for the “blue 
devils.” The despondency is gone; forget it. 


Habits — How Formed and 
Reformed 


The chronic neurasthenic is handicapped 
morally as well as mentally. His judgment 
is biased, his disposition is changed, his 
whole life, physical, mental and moral, is 
colored and crippled by his malady. Even 
his character is modified; often it is seriously 
damaged. No small part of the bad temper, 
moroseness, querulousness and other un- 
amiable qualities displayed by men and wo¬ 
men is due to the pernicious effects upon 
the nerve structures of the various poisons 
that produce neurasthenic states. A very 
large proportion of the 16,000 suicides com¬ 
mitted in the United States every year may 
properly be regarded as among the unhappy 
results of neurasthenia. Vicious habits and 
changes in character, resulting from the 
morbid conditions associated with neuras¬ 
thenia, are doubtless responsible for a con¬ 
siderable portion of the matrimonial ship¬ 
wrecks which land in the divorce courts. 


295 


296 


NEURASTHENIA 


The neurasthenic is the victim of bad 
habits, and therefore some understanding of 
habits, and how they are formed, is necessary 
in order to escape from their bondage. 

What is Habit 

As ordinarily used, the term “habit” re¬ 
lates to a thought or an act which, through 
frequent repetition, has come to be per¬ 
formed without the exercise of will power as 
at first. A moment’s consideration will show 
us that a large proportion of our daily activ¬ 
ities is made up of habits. Our modes of ex¬ 
pression, our manner of walking, our bodily 
attitudes when sitting or standing, even when 
lying or asleep, are the result of habit. The 
same is true of dressing, eating and largely 
of our vocations and avocations; in work, 
in play, in prosecution of business, in the 
pursuit of pleasure, and even in religion, 
habit plays a dominant part. 

How Habits are Formed 

Before this question can be answered, we 
must know something of the anatomy and 
physiology of nerves in relation to habits. 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 297 


First of all we must remember that the body 
is a machine—the most delicately constructed 
and the most marvelous of all mechanisms, 
but still a machine. A machine is a device 
in which one form of energy is trans¬ 
formed into another. Thus gravitation, re¬ 
volving a water wheel, which in turn oper¬ 
ates a dynamo, forms electricity, which may 
then be converted into light and heat. A 
locomotive converts energy stored in the coal 
into mechanical energy, by which it pulls 
a train. An automobile is a machine that 
converts the energy stored in gasoline into 
mechanical motion. Before the advent of 
the gasoline engine, which made the auto¬ 
mobile possible, when carriages were pro¬ 
pelled only by horses, the energy needed for 
road travel was obtained from corn, hay 
and oats, rather than from gasoline, and 
horses were employed as a mechanism for 
converting the energy stored in food into 
the energy of mechanical work. Food is 
fuel. The horse is an animated locomotive. 
Man is a similar machine, and far superior 
to any machine made by man. 


298 


NEURASTHENIA 


The best engines are able to utilize only 
about one-tenth the energy represented in 
the fuel, whereas the human body has an 
efficiency three times as great, and makes 
use of one-fifth to one-third of the energy 
represented in food. 

In a human being there are very many 
different forms of human activity. Every 
living cell has its own particular work to do, 
and is constantly active. The most conspicu¬ 
ous activities of the body, and those which 
are chiefly concerned in “habit,” are those of 
the nerves and muscles. Five hundred 
muscles constitute one-half of the weight of 
the body. The muscles are living magazines 
of energy, in which is stored up power ready 
to be released at the command of brain and 
nerves. The nervous system is made up of 
units called “nerve cells,” many of which 
send out immensely long thread-like arms of 
microscopic fineness, and which in passing to 
the different parts of the body are bound to¬ 
gether in bundles known as “nerves,” or 
“nerve trunks.” The nerve system of the 
human being is said to comprise not less than 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 299 


eleven thousand million of these nerve cells, 
each one of which is a storage battery of 
energy. When a muscular act is performed, 
it is because some muscle or group of 
muscles has received an inciting shock from 
these little nerve batteries in the brain or 
spinal cord. The nerve impulse is to the 
muscular movement essentially what the 
spark from the percussion cap is to the gun, 
or the ignited fuse is to the cannon or 
torpedo. 

The impulses which give rise to move¬ 
ment proceed from the brain or from the 
spinal cord. In every case both nerve cells 
and muscles are involved. Voluntary acts 
proceed from the brain. Several other acts 
upon which the brain has no control must 
proceed from the spinal cord. A simple 
illustration is afforded by the “knee-jerk.” 
If one in sitting places one limb over the 
other, and then taps the front of the leg just 
below the knee cap, the foot will be raised 
forward as in the act of kicking. This act is 
absolutely involuntary, and cannot be wholly 
suppressed even by the strongest effort of 


300 


NEURASTHENIA 


the will. The mechanism of the knee jerk is 
this: by the tap on the front of the leg a 
sensation is produced, which the sensory 
nerve carries to the spinal cord. When it 
reaches the body of the cell which sends 
sensory filaments into the leg, it is transmit¬ 
ted through another nerve unit to a motor 
cell, which in turn sends out an impulse to 
the muscles of the thigh, which contract, 
thus straightening the leg. 

This nerve arrangement from the leg to 
the spinal cord and back again to the leg is 
known as the sensori-motor arc, which con¬ 
sists of three parts: the sensory nerve that 
leads to the spinal cord, the motor nerve 
which leads back from the spinal cord to 
the muscles, and a nerve connecting the two. 
The brain has nothing to do with the knee 
jerk. This act is wholly under the control 
of the spinal cord. Only simple movements 
of this sort are performed by the human 
spinal cord, but in lower animals very com¬ 
plicated movements are performed. For ex¬ 
ample, a frog with its brain wholly removed 
through the amputation of its head, when 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 301 


placed on the floor will hop if the floor is 
jarred. If the frog is laid upon its back and 
a little acetic acid is placed on its abdomen, 
it will endeavor to wipe the acid off with 
both its hind feet. If the acid is placed 
on one thigh it will be rubbed off with the 
foot of the other leg, but if this leg is held 
down, the frog will use the foot of the same 
side in an effort to remove the acid. The 
animal seems, indeed, to be able to think 
and will with its spinal cord. The move¬ 
ments are evidently purposive. 

In the lower forms of life that possess 
no spinal cord a very different phenomenon 
is observed. For example, if the earth¬ 
worm is cut in two, the hind half wriggles 
about as though in pain, whereas the front 
half crawls off as though nothing had hap¬ 
pened. As a matter of fact, the head of the 
earthworm apparently is unconscious that 
half of its body has gone. With some 
species of worms the front half will in time 
grow on a tail, and the hind half a head, 
with neither worm apparently the worse for 
the injury. Such an experiment is possible 


302 


NEURASTHENIA 


in the earthworm, because of the extreme 
simplicity of its nerve-muscular mechanism; 
but the human brain, with its retinue of ser¬ 
vants, muscles, glands and other bodily or¬ 
gans, is a mechanism so incomparably refined 
and delicate that even a comparatively slight 
injury may completely disarrange and upset 
its operation. 

Such a muscular action as a knee jerk is 
known as a “reflex movement.” The brain 
and will take no part in movements of this 
sort. Movements of this kind are for the 
most part protective, and may be termed in¬ 
herited habits. If, for instance, the hand 
happens to fall against a hot steam coil, it 
is instantly withdrawn, and without any ac¬ 
tion of the will. One does not have to 
think, “My hand is in contact with some¬ 
thing hot; I must withdraw it quickly or it 
will burn,” for such a delay would often re¬ 
sult in serious injury. Nature has recorded 
through many generations the results of sim¬ 
ilar experiences, so that the spinal cord has 
formed the habit of protecting the external 
parts of the body from the threatened in- 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 303 

jury, by reflex movements, without waiting 
for the slower action of brain cells. 

Charles Darwin once tested the power of 
this protective instinct by attempting to hold 
his face against the plate-glass of a cage 
containing a cobra, while the animal struck 
at him. Although knowing that he was fully 
protected by the heavy glass plate, he found 
it impossible to avoid dodging whenever the 
animal made a quick movement in his di¬ 
rection. 

Balancing movements, closing of the eye¬ 
lids to avoid dust or bright light, coughing 
and numerous other reflex movements are 
carried on quite independently of the will. 

These organic, or inherited habits, while 
common to all animals, and absolutely es¬ 
sential to our existence, are small in number 
and very simple in character when compared 
with the great number of complex habits 
that constitute a large number of our daily 
activities, and that may be termed artificial 
or cultivated habits. 


304 


NEURASTHENIA 


The Synapse 

To understand how habits may be culti¬ 
vated, it is necessary to know about the 
“synapse.” A synapse is a newly discovered 
miscroscopic mechanism that is found in 
every sensori-motor arc. The relation of the 
synapse to nerve action and habit formation 
explains important brain functions that have 
not been understood until recent times. The 
synapse forms the contact between nerve ele¬ 
ments. It is through the synapse that one 
nerve cell communicates with another. An 
impression starting in the skin and conveyed 
to the sensory nerve in the spinal cord is 
passed over to the motor nerve through a 
synapse. A synapse differs from other parts 
of the sensori-motor arc in several partic¬ 
ulars. 

First, impulses can travel through the 
synapse in only one direction. The impulse, 
having once passed through, cannot return; 
the action is irreversible, while in nerve 
trunks impulses may travel in either direc¬ 
tion. 

Again, nerves are little subject to fatigue, 



A Synapse 

























HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 305 - 


while the synapse easily becomes fatigued. 
Nerves are little affected by narcotics and 
stimulants, while a synapse is highly sensi¬ 
tive to these poisons. 

Finally, the synapse offers resistance to 
nerve impulses, so that when a nerve impulse 
comes bounding along the nerve trunk at 
the rate of four hundred feet a second, on 
reaching a synapse it is slowed up, or if the 
impulse is weak, may be stopped completely. 
A number of repetitions of a feeble impulse 
may, however, be sufficient to overvome the 
resistance of the synapse. The resistance of 
the synapse changes. It seems to lessen with 
use; that is, if at first a very strong impulse 
is required to overcome the resistance of the 
synapse, after a number of repetitions the 
resistance to this particular impression will 
be lessened. 

In case of the knee-jerk the action is very 
simple. The impulse passes from the skin 
along the sensory nerve to the sensory cell, 
thence through the synapse to the motor cell, 
thence back to the muscles of the legs, giving 
rise to the kicking movement. More com- 


306 


NEURASTHENIA 


plicated impressions are not translated into 
movement by the spinal cord, but are sent 
up to the brain, where many cells are asso¬ 
ciated in the determination of the resulting 
reaction. The final reaction, whatever it is, 
is the result of the association of many dif¬ 
ferent synapses. The nerve impulse selects 
in the brain the path of least resistance. 

Said the late Sir Michael Foster: “The 
will, blundering at first in the maze of the 
nervous network, gradually establishes easy 
paths. When once this is effected, the slight¬ 
est impulse seems to start the nerve current 
along the whole of the associated groups, 
and produces the habitual action. The 
nerve current follows this route, not now be¬ 
cause it is guided by intelligence, but be¬ 
cause this route offers the least resistance 
from habitual use.” 

It thus appears that habit is really a train¬ 
ing of the synapses of the brain. The results 
of long-continued training of this wonderful 
mechanism are to be seen in the marvelous 
skill of the piano-player, the acrobat, the 
juggler, and indeed in every skilled trade 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 307 

and profession. As one author remarks: 
“The pen of a ready writer seems to dip 
itself into the ink at the right time, to form 
of itself all the words, and even to select 
different words to begin each sentence, and 
to avoid terminating them with prepositions, 
while all the time the conscious mind of the 
writer is deeply occupied with the plot.” 

Character 

Even the character consists very largely 
of habits. Our conduct is to some degree 
regulated by our dress, and thus in a sense 
we may be said to change our character with 
our clothes. Both our mental and physical 
life are thus controlled by laws which op¬ 
erate with as much definiteness as do the 
laws of the physical world. The river obeys 
the law of gravitation and is guided by its 
beds and banks; the stream of life is 
equally controlled by laws. 

In an illuminating paper in the Yale Re¬ 
view, October, 1914, Professor Frost has 
well said that “whether consciously or un¬ 
consciously, the business of life can be done 
only in obedience to nerve laws. To pray 


308 


NEURASTHENIA 


for strength to fight the devil, and at the 
same time to over-eat, under-sleep, to worry, 
to loll about in stuffy rooms, to force the 
brain to action when the stomach is replete, 
to deny oneself the natural cathartics of play 
and recreation — this is to disinfect the 
house against yellow fever, and leave the 
windows open to the deadly mosquito and 
its poison. Just as knowledge of the plain 
facts of sanitation is saving lives and health 
of body today, so will knowledge of nerve 
laws save lives and health tomorrow. For 
our splendid nervous systems, complex as 
they are, work with the precision of fine- 
wrought mechanism. To comprehend this 
mechanism is in part to control it. Psy¬ 
chology and physiology are explaining and 
describing in simple terms what heretofore 
has been thought mystical and supernat¬ 
ural.” 

Many advantages are gained by the for¬ 
mation of habits. It is only through forma¬ 
tion of habits that exceptional skill can be 
obtained in any trade or profession. The 
first time an act is performed it is done 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 309 


clumsily, in spite of the exercise of the great¬ 
est care and attention, but the hundredth or 
thousandth or ten thousandth repetition of 
the act may be performed quite uncon¬ 
sciously, and yet with the highest degree of 
skill. 

Mental or physical work to which one is 
not accustomed quickly induces fatigue, 
whereas the same work after training in¬ 
duces little or no fatigue. In this way habit 
formation economizes energy, and renders 
easy the performance of acts which would 
otherwise be impossible. 

Some interesting observations that have 
been made indicate that habits may be actu¬ 
ally developed or strengthened during 
periods of inactivity and even unconscious¬ 
ness. It is a common experience that an act 
performed with difficulty in the evening is 
next morning performed with ease; that a 
new exercise which is executed with difficulty 
at the first attempt, the next day will be 
executed easily. The Germans have a say¬ 
ing: “We learn to swim in winter and to 
skate in summer.” Boys who have spent 


310 


NEURASTHENIA 


the summer in learning to swim, find them¬ 
selves able to begin swimming next season 
with greater ease and skill than at the close 
of the previous season. 

Every portion of the body develops 
habits. The habits of the right hand differ 
from those of the left hand. This is an ad¬ 
vantage rather than a disadvantage. It is 
found that most idiots are ambidextrous. 

Disadvantages from the Formation of 

Habits 

While our habits are our servants, they 
likewise become our masters. A boy at 
school in sport imitates the stammering of 
a schoolmate, and himself becomes a stam¬ 
merer. Such an act as winking the eye, 
shrugging the shoulders, tilting the head to 
one side, or contracting the muscles of the 
face, may develope into a habit “tic,” and 
pass beyond the control of the will. 

Evil habits — that is, lying, profanity, 
stealing, smoking, liquor drinking and other 
vices — while at first the result perhaps of 
casual evil association, after a time become 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 311 

almost as independent of the will as the 
organic reflexes. 

“Uncle Jake,” a reformed reprobate who 
was rescued from the gutter, found himself 
a victim of involuntary profanity long after 
he had escaped the thrall of drink and other 
vices. When told of the fault, he replied: 
“It swore itself.” And doubtless he told the 
truth. 

A reformed safe-breaker who held a posi¬ 
tion of responsibility and trust during the 
last twenty years of his life, confessed to 
the writer that for a considerable time after 
he was given the position of head night 
watchman in a large city establishment, he 
was in constant terror lest his habitual pro¬ 
pensity to steal should become overpowering. 

Control or Reformation of Habits 

Every person who lives is probably more 
or less in bondage to some habit. Fortu¬ 
nately, most habits are amiable tyrants 
which do us no harm, and even may be rather 
a service; but when vicious habits become our 
masters, escape can be accomplished only by 
conflict which may be a battle royal. 


312 


NEURASTHENIA 


The formation of habits lessens suscepti¬ 
bility to noise and pain. They also lessen 
our susceptibility to pleasure, and may even 
diminish our moral sensitiveness. A wrong 
act first committed gives rise to great 
remorse and regret, but after many repeti¬ 
tions it is followed by no compunctions. 

A knowledge of the facts that have been 
presented in the foregoing paragraphs 
ought to be of considerable assistance to 
one who wishes to set about an intelligent ef¬ 
fort to overcome pernicious habits, and to 
establish a new order of life. In setting out 
to accomplish this, it is important to recog¬ 
nize that the more one is controlled by ha¬ 
bits, the less is he the real master of him¬ 
self. 

Real self-dominance, the highest state of 
manhood and womanhood, rises above the 
tyranny of habit. The slave of habit ap¬ 
proaches the animal plane. The lives of 
animals lower than man are almost wholly 
controlled by inherited habits that they obey 
without the exercise of will or intelligence. 
A starving caterpillar, as shown by Loeb, 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 313 


will turn deliberately away from food placed 
before it and crawl toward the light in 
obedience to an organic instinct. Lower ani¬ 
mals are far more at the mercy of their 
senses than are human beings. 

The higher the type of moral and intel¬ 
lectual development, the greater is the inde¬ 
pendence of sense impressions. In the lower 
animals the senses are developed to a far 
greater extent than in man. Wild animals 
and wild men have much keener senses than 
civilized man. Insects hear sounds to which 
human ears are deaf. Dogs live in a world 
of odors which the human olfactory sense 
has never discovered. The vulture can see 
its prey at a distance of twenty miles, and a 
certain species of moth can smell its mate 
when three miles away. The comparative 
feebleness of the senses in man may be an 
important factor in maintaining that domi¬ 
nance of the intelligence and volition which 
are essential to human welfare. 

Neurasthenic Habits 

Neurasthenia rarely fails to leave upon its 
unhappy victims evidences of its malign in- 


314 


NEURASTHENIA 


fluence, in vicious habits and undesirable 
transformations of character. Under the in¬ 
fluence of neurasthenia, persons who are 
amiable and of most excellent character be¬ 
come sullen, irritable, vacillating; sometimes 
dishonest, pessimistic, sensual, intemperate, 
and the victims of various drug habits. 
Neurasthenia may be the cause of the grow¬ 
ing use of opium, cocaine and other habit¬ 
forming drugs. The steady increase in the 
use of alcohol and of tea, coffee and to¬ 
bacco, and other habit-producing drugs in 
most civilized countries must be in a consid¬ 
erable part, in the writer’s opinion, attribu¬ 
ted to the increasing multitude of neuras¬ 
thenics found in all civilized lands as the re¬ 
sult of a general departure from simple and 
normal modes of life. 

Neurasthenia naturally predisposes to the 
formation of bad habits through the influ¬ 
ence of the numerous toxins which are de¬ 
veloped in the intestine, and which become 
concentrated in the blood as the liver, kid¬ 
neys, and other eliminative organs gradu- 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 315 


ally lose their power to destroy and excrete 
these extraneous toxins. 

These intestinal poisons act injuriously 
upon the brain and mind in two ways. First, 
certain poisons produce irritation or excita¬ 
tion of the nervous system, thereby lessen¬ 
ing the resistance of the synapses; second, 
other poisons produce depressing or paralyz¬ 
ing defects, lessening the power of the will, 
so leaving the body a prey to animal im¬ 
pulses which, in many instances, are greatly 
intensified by the morbid conditions induced 
by neurasthenia. All drugs which diminish 
the activity of the higher senses lessen the 
power of the will, and leave the body sub¬ 
ject to the control of the natural reflexes of 
the animal functions, a frequent result of 
which is marked changes in the character. 
Tendencies that have formerly been kept 
under control by exercise of the will thus 
become dominant and manifest themselves 
in ill-temper, anger, envy, and various forms 
of depravity. 

The only cure for vicious habits, no mat¬ 
ter how acquired, is to be found in the 


316 


NEURASTHENIA 


formation of new habits. This cannot be 
done casually, but by a deliberate and well- 
directed effort. A firm mental decision must 
be maintained, to correct vicious ways and to 
bring the body and mind under discipline. 

A young woman who had wandered far 
from the right path was asked by the writer: 
“How did you succeed in getting out of 
your evil life?” She said: “When I made up 
my mind that I must change my life, I took 
myself in hand.” She had found the secret 
of self-control. To take oneself in hand is 
necessary for correcting wrong habits. It is 
useless to wage simple battle against old 
habits. To do this only keeps constantly 
active the old combination of nerve elements 
which exist. New combinations must be 
made. The synapses must be trained to form 
new paths and new 7 associations. 

The following suggestions are based upon 
the facts of physiology and the teachings of 
experience, and if faithfully followed will, 
the writer believes, render substantial service 
in the battle which every confirmed neuras¬ 
thenic must wage to rid himself of the patho- 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 317 

logical residue that often remains behind in 
the form of vicious, disagreeable, and un¬ 
desirable habits after the physical causes of 
his malady have been removed. 

Substitution Habits 

First. It must be remembered that the 
sphere of habit represents an area of mental 
action in which a sort of automatism has 
been established, which operates in a large 
measure independently of the will, even in 
opposition to it. 

If the habit action is of a wholesome and 
beneficient character, there is a definite gain 
in this independence of action, in economy 
of effort. But if the habit action is of a 
harmful or undesirable character in rela¬ 
tion either to oneself or to others, then an 
effort must be made to bring the recalci¬ 
trant territory back under full control of the 
will. This is the battle to be won. 

Suppose, for example, the habit to be sup¬ 
pressed is profanity or harsh, severe expres¬ 
sions on slight provocation. The trouble is, 
the profane or harsh word has been so often 
used that it has become incorporated into the 


318 


NEURASTHENIA 


complex, of habit reflexes that constitute lan¬ 
guage, and without which fluency of speech 
would be impossible. In ordinary speech 
fluency is the most desirable quality, but 
fluency in profanity or in the use of harsh 
expletives makes a blasphemer or a common 
scold. It is necessary to erect a dam, so to 
speak, across the stream of impulses which 
give rise to the undesirable action. One 
may erect such a barrier by the determina¬ 
tion to suppress the undesirable verbal ex¬ 
plosions. To accomplish this a new habit 
must be formed — the habit of pausing a 
moment before speaking, to consider the 
form of expression to be used, thus making 
sure that the undesirable words are elimin¬ 
ated. By this means a resistance is set up 
which prevents the speech impulses from 
traveling along the old paths and directs 
them into new paths. 

Synapses that have been so often used 
that they operate themselves, are like a 
much-worn gate that swings open with the 
slightest touch—they open to the slightest 
stimulation, and must be closed by voluntary 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 319 

effort, and the energy directed through other 
synapses, thus forming new paths and es¬ 
tablishing in time a new and desirable habit 
which becomes a substitute for the undesir¬ 
able one. It must be remembered that the 
one thing essential for the formation of 
habit is incessant reiteration of the same act 
without interruption or change. A single 
relapse breaks the chain, and the battle must 
be begun again. Every habit, physical and 
mental, must be treated on the same plan. 

To cure worry, one must cultivate hope. 
He must deliberately cultivate optimism. He 
must force his mind into optimistic chan¬ 
nels of thought. This can best be accomp¬ 
lished by reading optimistic authors and 
talking with optimistic people. A very ex¬ 
cellent plan is for one to set himself the 
task of curing some other neurasthenic suf¬ 
ferer from his pessimism, by deluging him 
with optimistic ideas and expressions. This 
habit of making mental sunshine for others 
will in the end produce an optimistic habit 
of mind, if the physical causes which were 
originally responsible for the morbid condi- 


320 


NEURASTHENIA 


tion have been corrected, and will become 
permanent, thus eradicating pessimistic 
thought habits by substitution. 

It is a well-known fact that the best ac¬ 
tors often actually experience the emotions 
which they depict in their acting. Physiolo¬ 
gists have often raised the question, Do we 
laugh because we are happy, or are we 
happy because we laugh? Stage artists tes¬ 
tify that when counterfeiting laughter they 
often actually experience the thrill of good 
cheer which normally accompanies the act 
of laughing. There is indeed the most sub¬ 
stantial ground for believing that one may 
not only form, but reform his habits by de¬ 
liberately producing through the will such 
mental and physical activities as are nor¬ 
mally associated with mental and physical 
acts the opposite of those of which it is desir¬ 
able to rid oneself. 

If one feels reticent, unamiable and sullen, 
he may dissipate the evil spell by assuming 
an air of cheerful amiability and sociability 
quite different from his inward feeling, and 
the result will be that the mask of geniality 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 32! 

will after a time permeate the mind and 
character, and develop kindred habits of 
thought and action, and thus effect a cure. 

It is, of course, to be understood that these 
mental remedies must be preceded and sup¬ 
plemented by changes of physical habits, and 
the remedying of such morbid bodily states 
as may have conduced to the development or 
perpetuation of the mental malady. 

Neither laughter nor hypnotic suggestion 
can permanently cure a mental depression 
due to chronic toxemia. The colon filled 
with putrefying residues and excretory prod¬ 
ucts must be emptied. The harsh, dry skin 
must be made supple and active. The tone¬ 
less muscles must be strengthened by exer¬ 
cise. Every necessary means must be ap¬ 
plied for establishing the highest possible 
standard of health. 

On one occasion, as related elsewhere 
the noted Doctor Abernethy received a 
call from the famous French wit, Grim¬ 
aldi, who was at that time every night 
convulsing great crowds of Londoners with 
his brilliant humor. Without revealing his 


322 


NEURASTHENIA 


identity, Grimaldi bade the good doctor 
recommend to him a remedy for the chronic 
melancholy which made his life miserable. 
Said the doctor, “You need diversion; go to 
hear Grimaldi.” “Alas,” exclaimed the 
poor man, “I am Grimaldi.” Although 
counterfeit cheerfulness may render great 
service in combating neurasthenic blues, 
the application of other remedies aimed at 
the removal of the fundamental causes must 
be also employed. 

Avoidance of Fatigue 

Second . An important fact to which 
physiology calls our attention is the influence 
of fatigue on the synapse. Fatigue breaks 
down its resistance. The natural consequence 
is to weaken the resistance which the will is 
able to set up to the formation of undesir¬ 
able contacts which result in wrong and un¬ 
wise acts; at the same time the synapses 
through which these acts are excluded, hav¬ 
ing also lowered resistance, facilitate the ac¬ 
tions which should be repressed, and which 
under ordinary conditions the will can and 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 323 

does repress. The state of fatigue is thus 
a state of danger. 

A countless number of physical, mental, 
and moral disasters are a consequence of 
this weakening of the resistance of the will 
and opening of the doors of impulse which 
results from fatigue. To the tired brain, 
facts appear distorted. Values are displaced, 
sanctions are ignored, resolutions are for¬ 
gotten, good intentions fly to the winds, im¬ 
pulse is in the ascendency, the senses pre¬ 
dominate. The depression of fatigue, 
through harassing cares and loss of sleep, 
has in thousands of instances led to suicide, 
by a development of a momentary insane im¬ 
pulse to self-destruction. A multitude, per¬ 
haps one might safely say a large propor¬ 
tion, of crimes against persons and property, 
sexual crimes and moral obliquities of every 
shade and degree, may rightly be attribut¬ 
able to the will-weakening, resistance-lower¬ 
ing, mind-clouding influence of fatigue. 

The tired child is petulant. The tired 
mother often scolds. The tired father may 
be morose and grouchy. The tired-out 


324 


NEURASTHENIA 


committee wrangles. Exhaustion is the foe 
of sociability, good-fellowship, good cheer 
and virtue. 

If this be true, it is evident that the neu¬ 
rasthenic, who is in a state of chronic ex¬ 
haustion and fatigue, from which he never 
for one moment escapes, is in imminent 
danger; every one of his interests is im¬ 
periled, and not infrequently the interests of 
others are jeopardized, wrong judgments are 
formed, wrong decisions are made, unpleas¬ 
ant words uttered and unwise actions per¬ 
formed. It is highly important that a 
neurasthenic should be made acquainted with 
these facts, so that he may set a double watch 
upon himself, and, so far as possible, in his 
most lucid moments surround himself with 
barriers and protective influences against the 
untoward effects of his malady. 

With most neurasthenics there are some 
periods in the day—with some the morning, 
with some the evening, with still others the 
middle portion of the day—when for an 
hour or more the cloud seems to be lifted, 
and things wear a normal aspect. Then the 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 325 


fog bank rolls back again, and all is changed. 
The neurasthenic who carries burdens of re¬ 
sponsibility must deliberately plan as far as 
possible to make his decisions and form his 
plans of action during this lucid interval. If 
no such interval occurs, then it is necessary 
courageously to face the fact that one is in¬ 
capacitated for the performance of any re¬ 
sponsible duties, and must separate himself 
from such obligations until restored to a 
normal state. To do this sometimes requires 
more decision of character and more effort 
of will than the will-weakened, character-de¬ 
formed neurasthenic possesses. In such a 
case friends must intervene, and, most im¬ 
portant of all, a wise physician must by 
judicious counsel and direction and, if neces¬ 
sary, by the exercise of all the authority 
which he can assert, secure the consent of the 
invalid to withdraw from business or pro¬ 
fessional activities and devote himself to the 
task of rehabilitating his crippled body and 
his shattered nerves, 


326 


NEURASTHENIA 


Procrastination is Fatal 

Third. Physiologists have demonstrated 
that nerve impulses may travel in either di¬ 
rection along nerve trunks. Nerves have 
been transplanted, and may operate in a 
reverse direction. Motor nerves have even 
been made to serve for conducting sensa¬ 
tions; but the function of the synapse is 
clearly defined—it allows an impulse to 
pass in one direction only. It acts, in fact, 
exactly like a check valve. The nerve cur¬ 
rent can pass by, but cannot return, so it is 
necessary to stop at the very beginning the 
impulse which starts the wrong action. 
To accomplish this the mind must be ever 
on the alert. If it is a matter of speech, one 
must follow the example of the one of old, 
who said: “I will keep my mouth with a 
bridle.” 

An evil habit cannot be trifled with. It 
must not be allowed the least quarter. One 
must obey the Bible injunction to “flee these 
things.” It is already shown that this is 
especially important when one is in a state 
of fatigue; and since the neurasthenic is al- 



HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 327 


ways fatigned, it is of the highest import¬ 
ance that he should deliberately plan to 
make his environment such as to be strongly 
helpful in the right direction. 

Never Surrender 

Fourth. In the formation of new and 
good habits, the only means by which vicious 
habits can be overcome, the neurasthenic 
should not be discouraged if the first at¬ 
tempts are not successful. Physiology shows 
that by repetition of stimuli the resistance 
of the most refractory synapses may finally 
be broken down. If it seems a hard task, 
for example, to form the habit of cheerful¬ 
ness, of optimistic thought and speech, of 
sociability, of mental purity, encouragement 
may be found in the fact that repetition of 
the effort will certainly conquer at last; but 
the efforts must be persistent and insistent. 
Right thought leads to right action; if one 
closes the eyes while looking at the side wall 
of a room, and then thinks of a window on 
his right, on opening his eyes they will be 
found to be directed toward the window. 


328 


NEURASTHENIA 


Physiologists have shown that when one 
thinks of the movement of leg, for example, 
even though no movement is executed, the 
muscle fills with blood in obedience to the 
thought, and thus prepares itself for the ex¬ 
pected action. Hence, it is essential that 
thought habits, as well as overt acts, should 
conform to the standard to which one seeks 
to attain. 

Eliminating the Poisons 

Fifth. Physiologists have shown us that 
poisons influence the synapse to a powerful 
degree, although they may have little effect 
on the nerve trunks. Clinical observations 
show that this is just as true of the poisons 
generated in the colon as it is of alcohol, to¬ 
bacco, opium, and other drugs which may be 
introduced into the body. Indeed, many of 
the poisons generated in the colon possess 
a degree of virulence that is scarcely ap¬ 
proached by the extraneous poisons with 
which we ordinarily come in contact. Some 
of these poisons closely resemble the venoms 
of the most poisonous snakes and insects. 
In most minute quantities they produce tre- 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 329 


mendous nerve disturbances, by their effects 
upon the synapse. Laboratory experiments 
have shown that these colon poisons are fa¬ 
tigue poisons; that is, when absorbed into 
the circulation they produce all the effects of 
fatigue, even when no effort has been made. 
This is the reason why the neurasthenic is 
tired and exhausted, even though he has not 
worked. 

Neurasthenia, as elsewhere shown in this 
work, is very rarely, if ever, the result of ex¬ 
cessive effort. It is sometimes the conse¬ 
quence of deficient sleep and prolonged 
worry, but in the vast majority of cases the 
writer is convinced that the real cause of 
neurasthenia is to be found in the chronic in¬ 
toxication resulting from absorption of pu¬ 
trefaction poisons from the colon, which in¬ 
fluence the body as would a powerful drug 
injected into the circulation. 

It is evident, then, that the battle against 
pernicious neurasthenic habits must begin 
with the cleansing of the system from the 
disturbing poisons. The bowels must be 
kept thoroughly cleansed. First, by proper 


330 


NEURASTHENIA 


diet, meats of all sorts and other putrefy¬ 
ing food substances being excluded. The 
bowels must be made to move three times a 
day. A sufficient amount of bulky food ma¬ 
terial must be taken to stimulate normal 
bowel action and complete colon emptying. 
Water must be taken freely, usually to the 
extent of two or three quarts a day, to wash 
the tissues thoroughly and so keep the blood 
fluids free from body poisons. 

A considerable amount of vigorous out-of- 
door exercise should be taken daily, to stim¬ 
ulate the vital forces to burn up toxic ma- 

i 

terial. 

Light sweating baths, the electric light 
bath, sun baths, swimming, exercise, ex¬ 
posure of the body to light and air in the 
out-of-door gymnasium; an abundance of 
sleep (eight to ten hours always in fresh 
air), the morning bath, and all other meas¬ 
ures conducive to the development of vigor¬ 
ous physical health, must be persistently and 
faithfully employed. 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 331 


“Forgetting the Things That are Behind” 

Sixth . Finally, the neurasthenic must 
“forget the things that are behind” and 
press on to better things. No possible good 
can be done by dwelling on miseries. Every 
reiteration of a depressing or pernicious 
train of thought, as well as every repetition 
of a harmful act, does the character damage, 
and leaves its impress on the brain. The 
reforming of habits is a reformation of 
character. It is encouraging to note that 
character is not a thing inherited, nor a 
product of casual circumstance, but is the re¬ 
sult of one’s own efforts. One makes his 
own character by the voluntary training or 
neglect of such training of his synapses. If 
character has become deformed and dam¬ 
aged by neglect, the natural result of ig¬ 
norance of one’s responsibility in this matter, 
the synapses may be re-educated and the 
character reformed by persevering effort in 
the various ways which have been pointed 
out. 

Christian Science, the Emmanuel Move¬ 
ment, hypnotism, and all forms of sug- 


332 


NEURASTHENIA 


gestion have doubtless rendered service to 
many neurasthenic sufferers in the struggle 
to eliminate undesirable habits or traits of 
character. In all these methods, however, 
there is one highly pernicious element: The 
patient is made to believe in the power of 
another human mind to influence or control 
his own by occult means, and thus his confi¬ 
dence in his own power, his respect for his 
own will, his own manhood, is lowered. The 
neurasthenic needs help in the opposite di¬ 
rection. If he finds himself faltering in the 
struggle, he may properly seek such aid as 
may be obtained through human sympathy 
and association; but for substantial assist¬ 
ance the only really reliable source is to be 
found in religion, by which the writer means, 
not theology, or dogma, or sect, or supersti¬ 
tion, but simple belief and trust in a bene¬ 
ficent, all-wise, ever-present Power, the 
source of life and intelligence, that not only 
creates, but sustains and maintains, repairs 
and heals—a living Presence that animates 
and vitalizes every cell, which keeps the 
heart beating while we sleep, and, in the 


HABITS—HOW FORMED and REFORMED 333 


words of the old prophet, “wakens us morn¬ 
ing by morning.” This great Power, which 
made us and keeps us in life, is an inex¬ 
haustible source of strength upon which the 
weakened neurasthenic will may draw for 
help; a Power which is ever ready to min¬ 
ister to the “mind diseased,” co-operating 
with which the most despairing neuras¬ 
thenic may triumph over his gloom and de¬ 
spair, and find light, comfort and peace. 





















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INDEX 


Abdominal brain, description of . 

supporter .. 

Adrenals, function of . 

Agar-agar . 

Alcohol . 

a cause of neurasthenia. 

Antitoxic diet . 

foods to avoid. 

Appendicitis, caused by excess protein 
Arteriosclerosis, and neurasthenia 

caused by meat .. 

Bacillus, bifidus . 

bulgaricus . 

glycobacter . 

Backache, how relieved. 

Bacteria, in meat . 

Baths, cold . 

cold air. 

electric light . 

neutral . 

for health... 

in habit correction. 

rowing or surf . 

treatment after . 

shallow . 

Beer . 

Blues, the, how to cure. 

Bouchard, Prof. 

Bran . 

Brain, under fatigue . 

its function . 

condition during sleep . 

Bright’s disease._. 

caused by excess protein . 

Bulkley’s skin cream . 

Cajal, Dr. . . 

Cancer, caused by excess protein . 


.98, 103 

. 116-118 

. 194 

. 80 

.. 257 

. 140, 141 

80, 84, 236-244 

. 257, 258 

. 237 

. 64 

. 237 


. 83, 84 

77, 78, 83, 84 
. 83 


278-280 


.. 237 

. 90-95 

. 93 

. 84-86 

. 86 

. 250 

. 330 

. 95, 96 

. 96, 97 

. 95 

. 58 

268-270, 289-294 

. 209 

. 80 

. 36, 37 

. 25, 27, 32 

.211 

. 64 

. 237 

. 97, 250 


209 

237 


335 








































336 


NEURASTHENIA 


Cellulose, amount contained in foods . 252, 253 

Christian Science. 146, 147, 151, 182, 331 

Cirrhosis of the liver . 64 

Clothing . 255 

Coffee . 58, 133 

Colax . 80 

Cold, effect of on skin . 90-93 

Cold hands and feet, how relieved.287 

Colitis, and chronic toxemia . 75 

cause of . 236, 237 

Constipation, a cause of fatigue . 60 

how to overcome . 68, 79, 80 

latent . 67 

Corset, bad effect of. 106 

Cramps, how relieved. 286 

Diaphragm, function of . 104 

Diet, influences of . 40, 41 

antitoxic . 257, 258 

laxative . 251, 252 

for efficiency. 236-247 

Drowsiness, cause and cure.266-267 

Drugs, a cause of neurasthenia . 125-144 

Dyspepsia, nervous . 98, 124 

Electric light bath . 84-86 

Emmanuel Movement . 146, 160, 182, 331 

Emotions, effect of . 183-205 

Enema, use of. 80 

Exercise, curative.119-124 

how to take. 90, 119-124 

in habit formation . 330 

for health . 247-249 

Eye tire, how relieved. 281-285 

Fatigue, how formed . 33-37 

a cause of constipation . 60 

Fear .. 188, 189 

Feeble-mindedness, increase of . 20 

Feet, sweating. 288 

cold . 287 

Fidgets, how to relieve . 271 

Freud, method of . 180, 182 

Fruits, fresh. 80 











































INDEX 


337 


Goiter, caused by worry . 195 

Habits, correct . 317, 333 

nature of . 296 

how formed . 295-333 

Hands, sweating. 288 

cold . 287 

Headache, how relieved . 276, 277 

Hearing, how improved . 285 

Heat, effect on neurasthenia . 38 

Heredity, influence of . 20, 51-54 

Hormones, function of . 193 

Hypnotism . 161, 162 

Hypnotoxin, discovery of .„. 209 

Ileocecal valve, incompetent. 69-74 

Insomnia, danger of . 264, 265 

exhaustion from . 43 

Insanity, increase of . 20 

Intestinal flora, changing the . 76-84 

Light baths.84-86 

Liver ...61, 64 

Muscles, under fatigue .35, 36 

Mustard . 257 

Nature, return to . 22, 88-90, 233, 259, 261 

Nerves, physiology of.27-31 

under fatigue . 36, 37 

Nerve energy, force of . 29 

Neurasthenia, not a distinct disease . 14 

seldom due to overwork . 17, 39 

definition of term . 14 

a state of exhaustion . 21 

alcohol ._. 140, 141 

due to unnatural habits . 21 

Neurasthenia, influence of occupation . 45 

not hereditary . 20, 51-54 

splanchnic . 108, 109 

effect of worry. 42 

sexual . 148,150 

caused by bad diet ... 40, 41 

a disease of sedentary life . 47, 49 









































338 


NEURASTHENIA 


part played by poisons . 55-74 

and colitis . 75-77 

tobacco . 139, 140 

prevalence of . 18 

caused by drugs . 125-144 

effects of noise . 217 

how to live . 232, 261 

Neuron, physiology of . 27-29 

Neutral bath, how to take . 86 

Noise, effect on nerves. 217-231 

Numbness, how relieved . 271, 272 

Oatmeal . 82 

Occupation, influences of . 45 

Old age, caused by poisons . 65 

caused by excess protein . 237 

Outdoor life . 89, 90 

Palpitation of the heart, how relieved. 273 

Paralax . 80 

Pepper . 58 

Pituitary body, function of . 194, 195 

Posture . 110-118 

how to correct . 111-118 

Poisons, cause of neurasthenia . 55 

defense of body against .61 

Predisposition to neurasthenia. 20 

Psuedo-angina. 273, 274 

Religion, curative effect. 145-147 

cure for worry . 203-205 

habit formation . 332 

Rest, amount necessary . 255 

Rub, the cold towel . 94 

Sedentary life, relation to neurasthenia . 47-49 

Sexual neurasthenia, how cured .149, 150 

Simple life, how to live . 233-261 

Sitting, correct posture . 113-116 

Skin cream . 97, 250 

Sleep, philosophy of . 206, 231 

when most profound .210, 211 

effect of on blood-pressure . 206, 207 

amount needed . 255, 212-214 










































INDEX 339 

outdoors . 90 

how acquired . 214-217 

why essential . 207-209 

Sorrow, effect of . 187, 188 

Standing, correct position . 111-113 

Stools, foul . 66 

Suprarenal capsules . 62 

Sweating of hinds and feet. 288 

Synapse, how formed . 304 

Tea . 58, 133 

Thyroid gland . 62 

Tobacco . 257 

a cause of neurasthenia . 139, 140 

Tonics . 257 

nerve foolers . 87, 88 

Toxemia, chronic . 55, 61 

treatment of . 74-97 

Trembling, how relieved . 286 

Vegetables, fresh . 80 

Vinegar . 58, 257 

Viscera, congested. 105-109 

Work, seldom cause of neurasthenia . 17, 39 

Work cure, why valuable. 90 

Worry, a cause of neurasthenia . 42, 43 

effect of . 183, 205, 256 

cure for. 198-205, 268-290 

at meals . 246 

' excitement of abdominal brain. 101, 102 







































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